Daniel Young - A Nail

The metal rod which spares no child-
-ses’ foot, engores within their flesh.
And fear of fever illness drives them to his cousin,
needle.
His hollow nose dips and deals in poison.
But the honest nail is straight and strong.

The brave nail patiently accepts its fate.
Such endurance in its spirit
that holds together households.
A head of steeléd nerves
beckons the angry hammer,
to drive it to a bed of nails.
Does life exist within the stud?

O, what the hammer! ?
What the anvil? !
A malice of tiger’s burning eyes
bought by the box and buried in the thousands.
Is it blind because it has no eyes?
Or is it designed for submit to lies?
Six feet under, dense hard wood
the carpenter raises an weapon high
and brings it down with a vengeance.

When a malguided strike finds a fault in its bones
its silver spine is twisted such.

What the sole and what the shoe
How many nails can he chew?
The carpenter died by ferric blood
Did life exist within the stud?
How the man, and why the work?

Daniel Young

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