Author’s Note: “How important it is to take care of problems when they’re small! I imagined a friend doing minor maintenance on his house. He’d assess the situation, read instructions, and do a good job. The poem shifts in last five lines and moves beyond the literal fix-it. With his clean hand over his heart, he pledges to take care of what needs close attention to be held together.”
The Practice of Small Repairs
A gap. A man, his caulk gun
at first awkward draws a bead.
He recalls with a flush
to read the directions before
the gush and scrape. Seal
and in the end the colors
match and blend so no one
will know it’s not done by a pro.
Smooth, the man stands, tall.
He walks to the sink for a drink
and a wash and he thinks
hand over heart,
prayer or pledge,
this is a seam that will hold.
⧫
Jeanine Hathaway is the author of the novel, Motherhouse (NY: Hyperion, 1992), The Self as Constellation (UNT, 2002), winner of the 2001 Vassar Miller Poetry Prize, the chapbook The Ex-Nun Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2011), and Long after Lauds (Slant Books, 2019) winner of a 2020 Catholic Book Award for Poetry. She is professor emerita of English at Wichita State University and a former mentor in the Seattle Pacific University MFA Creative Writing Program.
This poem was originally published in the Delmarva Review, Volume 15, a nonprofit literary journal that selects the most compelling new poetry, nonfiction, and short fiction from thousands of submissions during the year. It is available worldwide from Amazon.com and other major bookstores. The review is designed to encourage outstanding new writing. Support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. Website: www.DelmarvaReview.org.
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