Ode to the Screw

Pity the screw.  Poor screw.  

You know why.  In English 

its name means—you know what.  

We’re not supposed to say.  It means 

“fuck.” Screw means fuck.  Not gentle 

loving-making, but screwing.  Screw you!

He’s screwing his secretary.

Really screwed that guy over.  

Poor screw.  It’s a helix, you know  

It turns, it doesn’t pound.  

A nail goes straight in: bang! bang! bang! 

A screw turns a circle into 

a straight line.  You think that’s nothing?  

Listen—the ratio of a circle 

to a straight line is completely 

irrational, it’s pi, it can’t be expressed

as a fraction. But look at the screw go, 

turning and turning the circles 

into a delving straight line.  And look: 

it leaves something behind.  

Not sawdust, not debris, look: 

little wooden curlicues. 

Little spiral images 

of itself, made up of

the material it’s screwing 

or being screwed into.

Lovely screw.