The architect’s scales

Dad’s tools of the trade
acquired over seven decades ago
handed down to another generation
through university and beyond they saw me

eleven scales held in a triangular prism–how clever
solid wood–they don’t make them like that anymore
colour of ivory with accents tricoloured
bearing scars from years of battering
odors absorbed from toolbox neighbours:
ink leads pastels rubbers pounce and the like
rather rank if I may say so

reposing unused for many years
replaced by the computer
forgotten perhaps but not unloved
ready to be taken up again
by another generation

Writing exercise from the FutureLearn How To Make A Poem MOOC
A memory of a tool

Glasgow, 20 June 2018

Undulating Brush

I take up my tool
applied to his head
stroking, gently stroking
in waves
brush and I are as one…

…two, three
how many times
‘to one hundred’ cries he
smooth and long enough
to be let down
for his prince

Writing exercise from the FutureLearn How To Make A Poem MOOC.
Choose two arbitrary words as the prompt (one to be a tool)

Glasgow, 20 June 2018