Daily Prompt: If I Had a Hammer
If you could learn a trade — say carpentry, electrical work, roofing, landscaping, plumbing, flooring, drywall — you name it — what skill(s) would you love to have in your back pocket?
My grandma says the trouble with American schools is that kids graduate without a trade. She says that when she went to school and was raising her kids, there was an academic track for those who found school enjoyable and a trade track for those who found school hard or uninteresting. Of course the system wasn’t as simple as that, as there was a strong vein of classism built into it. Nevertheless, my uncles came to the US with a trade (mechanic, electrician, etc) and these skills allowed them to create a life for themselves in America. One of my uncles often said he didn’t have a head for learning, but he was a mechanic. The skills he brought with him eventually took him to work for a major airplane manufacturer. So having concrete skills–hence a trade–was something that worked out well for him. What would I do with a hammer?
If I had a hammer, I’d be a tinkerer, building thingamabobs sprawled around the floor for unsuspecting feet to trip over, leaving the unaware in sobs.
I’d get some wood with this thingamabob, a pretty one like redwood or maybe more practical like pine or maybe one that’s bendable yet dependable like bamboo that I’d hold together with glue.
Once that’s settled, I’d look for a string of wire, something strong and long enough to take me light years, through the roof and straight outta this world. Yep that would be my desire.
I’d come back down to the exact spot of the first crop circle to see if it was by human or alien hand. Or better yet, to when (wo)man lived in caves and had to be brave before the wide, watchful world. If I had a hammer, I’d be a mad scientist, tinkering and inventing contraptions to take me through time and space.
the poetry dabbler 