Late October
I’m thinking about Rembrandt
while filing a chainsaw
that used to belong to my neighbor Lloyd Cooley,
a Stihl 017
I got at the yard sale after Lloyd died.
I’m thinking how Rembrandt
over the course of his lifetime created
nearly a hundred self-portraits, and also I’m thinking
how one of those pictures
of everyday life in Holland in the 17th century
might include
a carpenter in his workshop filing a saw.
Some things don’t change.
It’s late October. Time to reconsider
everything. With each stroke of the file I can feel
steel biting steel,
leaving each tooth with a razor sharp edge.
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