Lou Gallo, 1/6/2014

Current Occupation:  Professor
Former Occupation:  most of life, professor; as a kid and teen worked at my dad's woodworking shop
Contact Information:  born and raised in New Orleans.  Now teaching at Radford University in Virginia, living with wife and daughters.  Publications include GLIMMER TRAIN, TEXAS REVIEW, SOUTHERN QUARTERLY, RATTLE, TAMPA REVIEW, BERKELEY FICTION REVIEW, storySouth, XAVIER REVIEW, MISSOURI REVIEW, MISSISSIPPI REVIEW, NEW ORLEANS REVIEW, et al.  Chapbooks include THE ABOMINATION OF FASCINATION and THE TRUTH CHANGES.  Poetry volumes include HALLOWEEN and OMENS.  I am founding editor of the now inoperative Barataria Review and Books:  A New Orleans Review.  I have been a contributing editor of The Pushcart Press. 

 

#

BITES

 

My dad used to say that no job was easy.

Change a light bulb, he’d say, and the base

Breaks off in the socket

And what should have taken a minute

Takes an hour

(and don’t believe that garbage

About raw potatoes as a quick fix).

Try pulling out a nail with your crowbar

And the head breaks off

And what should have taken a minute

Takes an hour.

But don’t you just love it

When the screw you’re inserting

Into a piece of hard wood takes

(or bites as they say)

After only a few moments?

Don’t you love it?

I love it

And it just happened to me this morning.

I deem it a religious moment,

Atonement, redemption, whatever . . .

I just love it, and the golden oak

Loves it and the brass screw loves it

And the screwdriver loves it

And the air and Nature love it

And everybody loves it

And the job is finished,

Finally, imagine, finished . . .