SIGN ON THE ROOF,
WALKING UNIONTOWN, PA
--for B. B.
ALL LEATHER REPAIR
JACKET REPAIR, SADDLE REPAIR
SHOE REPAIR
White circle of light
Open in red
letters
phone number on sign mounted on roof.
In plaid shirt, maestro
works on a hat from inside his shop
looks up at me watching him remove
the worn leather band.
Neither of us talking, asking to be helped.
He returns to the leather band,
measures with a piece of leather
gauging its width. After cutting
to size, leather's too thick.
He attaches the leather
to a bladed gauge, pulls it
through, leather breaking once--
hide's not uniform--
gets it the second time,
circumambulates the hat with fingers,
rings around a far star.
This hat, a man's, originally
for dressing up, faded now,
wool, dirt-filled, inside-brim
sweat-soaked, this hat works outside,
hat that a man loves and works in,
brought here, for restoration,
original brown color
uncovered with the removal
of the original band.
Watching him work,
el maestro in his shop, taller,
for the better part of an hour,
I step back when a middle-aged woman
steps into the shop to see
if her sandals are ready.
But the button on the strap doesn't match perfectly
with the button she lost.
That can't be replaced
the craftsman explains, That button
doesn't exist anymore.
The strap is fine but I can't
wear them out, she says.
I guess I could wear them in the garden.
I'm looking at a full spool
of luminescent blue thread
set on the machine on the customer
side of the counter, trying to imagine
its journey from this shop and where
it might go when it leaves the store,
this thread created for beauty's practicality.
Maestro resumes work at his table
of tools, a mallet of wound leather,
a hand-made tool. He looks at me,
twice his age, picking up
a work in progress, a man's belt,
full two inches wide, leather-stitched
in two parallel columns
of luminescent blue thread.
Light radiating from the leather.
Cinturón, cincha.
El maestro debío
ceñirse el tema sin divagar.
It doesn't happen very often.
Sometimes the button they're looking for
have been disappeared, like people,
lost in dreams, or worse. Tu sabes.
Hoping he'll tell me more about
the hat, he begins measuring holes
to match the belt's buckle,
and I see by his eyes
he's measuring this belt for me.
Asegúrate de que la cincha está bien ajustada
y de que las silla de montar no se bambolea.
You don't want the saddle to wobble
I'll be wearing a new belt when I leave,
I hope my wallet has a couple of twenty's.
Try it on, Maestro says, Here.
Honoring what is not deserved
isn't for the weak. How to respond
to what we're not ready for.
Carry gratitude as one can.
No merezco nada. Gracias se fue.
Asking what might be fair
makes one payaso,
a fool.
The craftsman's eyes, justice-steady,
find mine before he speaks,
Not everything is
about money.
Jim Bodeen
April-October, 2018
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