Ode to a Spirit Level

This entry is part 17 of 34 in the series Odes to Tools

Who would have thought that two vacant globes
preserved in alcohol

could so hold a construction
worker’s attention,

a devotional gaze otherwise reserved
for gravity-defying breasts or buttocks

if not always the eyes that go with them,
that cool disregard

that elicits a squint & a whistle
at whatever fails to fall into line.

Series Navigation← Ode to a PlaneOde to a Hoe →

About Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta (bio) crowd-sources his problems by following his gut, which he shares with one quadrillion of his closest microbial friends --- a tight-knit, symbiotic community comprising some 500 different species of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.
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12 Responses to Ode to a Spirit Level

  1. Dave says:

    Bit of a dry spell (for me; certainly not for the weather here!). I’m afraid that’s the best I can do right now.

  2. dale says:

    :-) I enjoyed it.

  3. leslee says:

    Hey, it made me chuckle. :-)

  4. David Harmon says:

    The spirit/body comparison is amusing, but a little forced…. It does add a dimension at right angles to both the level and the plumb bob. ;-)

  5. Dave says:

    Actually, I didn’t intend any spirit/body comparison – that’s been done to death with spirit levels, which are so called because of the ethanol (‘spirits’) in which the air bubbles float. I could retitle it “Ode to a Bubble Level,” I suppose, but I don’t care for the internal slant rhyme of that alternate name.

  6. David Harmon says:

    I’m afraid it snuck in while the construction worker was looking elsewhere. :-) ( Puns are inevitable; resistance is useless! :-)
    )

  7. Bill says:

    Aee! I’m caught-out wallowing in the comment trough, once again. I enjoyed this.

  8. Dave says:

    Thanks. Actually, I liked the “git ‘er done” reference in the first draft of your comment.

  9. Bill says:

    Got ‘er did!

  10. Joan says:

    I really liked this. Amusing doesn’t have to mean it’s not true and there’s a ‘heap o’ truth’ in that ‘cool disregard’ line. At the risk of being slammed for punning..you nailed it. A whistle can be both a compliment and an insult (and apparently at the same time) ask any woman.

  11. Dave says:

    Thanks. But I’m thinking it’s probably an grossly unfair stereotype of contruction workers.

  12. Joan says:

    You are too hard on yourself. Nobody thinks all construction workers are sexist anymore than that all scythes have curvy handles. Whatever poetic or satiric way you approached it, for me you captured the fact that it’s not necessarily the whistle/hooting that enrages women but the disrespect and denigration in the dead eyes of many who do it.