Rescued poem # 2: Undercoat

One scrawled in a journal from about four years ago. Odd, I thought those shelves were older than that. A bit domestic maybe, but it has a sense of time and place which I like


Undercoat

Steadily, with long strokes
I apply the undercoat
To the cheap board we bought
I’ve sealed and primed it
And I’m turning it into shelves
For the study of this
Our first home

For our work
Your planning for the futures of others
My plots and recipes

On the radio there’s a man, 93
Recalling the songs he sang at 35
And as I paint
Steadily, and with long strokes
I wonder if I
At 93
Will recall the shelves I painted
At 35