hardware store

After all these years your face is

Still engrained in my mind

Orbital sander helps me fade it

Marks carved deep over time 

With each layer I am shedding

Someone I used to know

The air is thick with sawdust

But once it’s clear, then you’ll go

And I’ll be free of wondering 

What you were doing  

at the hardware store

You don’t go there anymore

I watch your face becoming paler

Smooths to nothing as I plane

All the grooves left on the surface

All the mistakes that you made 

But the deeper I go through it 

Hoping that the images dims 

What I’m hit with is so vivid

And I’m right back there again  

And I can’t stop wondering 

What you were doing 

at the hardware store

You don’t go there anymore

Next I’ll take a hammer 

Bash the nails in while I try 

To conceal all the secrets

In the coffin where you’ll lie 

Seal the planks, surface is ready 

Just a natural wood grain 

They’d never know it once reflected

So much pleasure, so much pain 

I’ll never stop wondering

What you were doing 

At the hardware store

Without stepping through the door