Tuesday, September 23, 2008: On the Street....Molto Benno, Milano

A Phillips screwdriver fits into a plus sign;
a regular screwdriver plugs into a minus.

That’s all I know about how things are assembled.
That, and how to use a wire hanger

to connect the pieces in the toilet tank.
In an aptitude test, I failed

the “Spatial Relations” section. But lately, I’ve been thinking,
handiness could be a learned skill.

It all comes down to positive and negative
space, to knowing when to fill a hole

and when to create one. When I look into the toolbox,
the shiny metal doesn’t seem so different

from the cone-shaped icing tips that create
their own contoured holes in reverse.