the Hallmark channel’s on when I get there
and the basement leak hasn’t stopped, so
in the bleak kitchen light I draw it out
like dad used to
scribbling with his stub pencil
lines to mark cobbled plumbing,
we’d figure on a fix with the fewest cuts
the least joints – to assuage future risk
draft the supply list, hit the hardware store,
and launch into it, confidence our wrench
hours later I pull off his cap, wipe my brow
under now-dripless freshly clamped plastic
and I wonder if he did the same thing
years ago when his mom had a leak
and his dad had passed, too