The oldest joke
in the world,
a chair on three legs.

Sawdust kicks
up,swirls
around his boots

and settles
in the cuffs of his
pants. The saw is

as nervous as
a parrot,
The chair

shrinks. After
years of cupboards
and end tables, after

a plywood Santa
and seven elves
for the lawn in snow,

he knows.
He's failed, and
in oak.

Next Christmas
he buys himself
and his son.