Marbleous Tale

a gate started it
the new one Nikki had built
Jose put it up

a fine job he did
sturdy, good smelling cedar
attractive as was

about the same time
with Nikki’s birthday quite near
I asked...as I do

‘anything you’d like?’…
‘yes, as a matter of fact…
marbles in my gate’

‘huh?’ I responded
she e-mailed me some pictures
‘that looks easy! sure!’

went wild...as I do
ordered a mess of marbles
different sizes

big, bigger, biggest
from one to two inches round...
or so did I think

but soon did I learn
marble sizes are metric…
my drill bits inches

no metric bits found
had no choice but to make do
ream out and use glue

not quite so easy
took most of one Saturday
sweltering it was

Nikki worked with me
a gift in itself...for me!
made it most special

we worked five hours
but did not finish...bummer
pretty low I felt

not like I used to
when I took on big projects
finished them with ease

went home and cleaned up
took stock of things as things are
that was then...not now

enough of moaning
limitations of aging
merely circumstance

back out at seven
drill, drill, drill...rest of the holes
glue, glue, and tape, tape

two hours...all done
back at five...off with the tape
glue set...marbles tight

must say, gate looks good
better than the pictured ones
Nikki likes it too!

best of all I think
we worked on it together
Happy Birthday Us!

(composed 07/16/23...posted on Nikki's birthday)