Steeplejack

How to dismantle an empire

Inspired by steeplejack Fred Dibnah and for anyone who is daunted by the task. xox M

Steeplejack

Anything that human hands have built
no matter how colossal
no matter how fixed
no matter how longstanding
or established or set;

no matter who dreamed it
or gathered the materials;
no matter who paid for it
or the money they spent;

no matter their beliefs
when they built it
or the stories they invented
to explain it,
or how many earnest people
now proclaim it necessary
by virtue of its permanence—
a landmark anchoring
familiar landscape,
like the buddy
they grew up with;

no matter how laughably unassailable it seems,
how ridiculous to attempt,
I am here to tell you:
if human hands
have labored it into being, then

all it takes
is one reluctant steeplejack
with a stout heart
willing to show up Monday morning
to climb into wind and fog;

who just keeps banging away
with a big hammer,
“bashing some off”
again and again;

who dances with death
but has no intention of dying
except in bed
with his boots on;

who rests when he’s tired
and knocks back a pint
now and again
to kill the pain;

who doesn’t dwell on how hard the task
or how lonely he is
or how long it’s going to take
to dismantle it to rubble.

Anything, anything
that human hands have built
can be unbuilt:
brick by brick,
brick by brick,
brick by beautiful
blessed
goddamn
brick.

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I highly recommend dropping in on this video of Fred Dubnah, if only for a few minutes. He was one of a kind — the kind we need more of.

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As always, keep your light shining bright.

xox
M