Old Workshop Bench
after Robert Burns
The wooden bench worn smooth by years of use and neglect holds the weight of a thousand projects started and abandoned
The tools lie scattered, each one telling a story of its own the plane with its blade dulled the chisel with its handle worn
In the silence, I hear the sound of a task unfinished the scrape of a tool on wood the soft curse of a mistake made
And I wonder, what was it that the maker had in mind when they laid down their tools and walked away, was it done?
I borrowed Robert Burns' attention to the everyday and the worn, and took it to a modern, industrial setting, exploring the stories told by objects. His syntax and line breaks influenced my own, aiming for a similar feel of conversational flow.