Building.

Wyeth, N.C., Children with Sleds on Snowy Hill, (Kuerner's Hill, Coasting), 1915

DAD'S SLED

He built it with used two by fours

scrap metal for runners.

He always saved spare parts

and cast off material.

We might use that someday

he would say and, sure enough,

one day when ice and snow came,

the Bailey Hill beckoned.

I stood beside him

in the cold basement as he framed

a sled from a design

tucked away in his memory.

I helped by holding the wood

in place as he nailed it tight,

then tacked on the runners.

We rode that sled every day

the cold lasted, screaming with delight

flying downhill in homemade ecstasy.

But today I remember the making

of the sled. It is in building

that his genius lay, and how I marvel

at his ability to make happiness

out of things left over, used

and otherwise abandoned.

Ken Hada