UNCLE BILL
My uncle Bill
up on the roof with a mouthful of nails
spitten em and hitten em
Before nailing guns and faster
Hardest working man I ever knew
It was hard to tell what Bill liked
but you always knew what he didn’t
He hated governments and politicians
worse than a man who wouldn’t work
I spent many a happy hour in his line of fire
while he spit opinions like bile coated nails
My father used to say
“A little hard work never killed anyone”
It may have killed Bill
Building cabinets at seventy seven
a blowout in the brain
and he fell like a sack of nails
I wasn’t there
it might have been the work
or he may have been listening to the news