How I Made IT Through

WAYMAN 9 TOM WAYMAN HOW I MADE IT THROUGH The heft of the small compressed air drillmotor under the flourescent lights The slow ease of its drillbit passing into fiberglass Fine ridges of the threads of small bolts lifted out of the full trays of parts Thin, cool washers of stainless steel are slipped on The bolt, held by its hexagonal head is set in through a hole in the grille side, into the hood Or, making a grille, peeling back the layer of paper unwrapping the polythene inside that to bare at last the clear body of the freshly-chromed metal top-shell, a perfect mirror Pulling the last of its covering away, to leave it new and naked: beautiful Hands put into blunt gloves to make the trim and air-cleaner cuts into fibreglass with router and saw The rasp of sandpaper and files straightening and rounding the hood's new edges The lift of the hood onto a dolly, straining to tilt its weight on its hinges, and fit the dolly's strut supports And against all this, carrying me through: the feel of my finger tips passing on her smooth, firm, taut skin warm in the glow of a yellow lamp, in the whispering darkness. ...