Flip It

photo by Bruce Fingerhood.

Flipping Houses

It’s easier than you think

Just fall in love with his potential

Pretend he’s not a fixer-upper

Try to solve him like a simple toilet clog

A faucet with an untraceable leak

Grab a plunger and a screwdriver

Get grease under your nails

Get shit on your shoes  
                                                                                                                

Bang ineffectually with your hammer

And your forehead

Until you are so weary

You have no choice

But to give up and fall in love

With the next impossible project

This time don’t try to change anything

Except have a go at pulling up

That stained carpet

Knock out a wall

Put in a skylight

To illuminate everything he

Never wanted anyone to see

Watch him duck behind the couch

Under the dining room table

To stay out of your

Piercing bright light

Then you

Blinded with headache

From all that

Pointless installation

Give up and use

Your ever expanding tool belt

As you fall in love

With the next unfeasible project

Do this for 25 years

Discover it’s not all that different

From sticking with your first home

Watching it fall down around you

But staying in it for the children

Or because you said you would

Love   honor    cherish

Till death do you part

And now it’s not fit to live in

Either way it’s hard work

And you’re no quitter

You’re just not willing

To beat a dead habit

With your wrench

Or your sledgehammer

Or your forehead anymore

Everybody’s just getting scarred and bloody

So face it

The time has come

You’ve got to do-it-yourself

Fix up your own damn house girl

Find what’s concealed

Underneath that wreckage

Clamber over it

Alone for a change

Toil hard

Clean up after yourself

And when the work is through

Pop open a beer

Lean back in the hammock

Heave a long contented sigh

And look around

At the dream house

You taught yourself

How to build