My favorite tape measure broke the other day.  I can’t count the number of things we measured together.

But he’s gone.

Que up the sad music …….

Ode to Big Blue

Big Blue is gone – he was a tried and tested friend,

He was 25 feet long from end to end

The projects we worked on the lines we drew,

I’ll miss the big guy – I’ll miss Big Blue.

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He had a clip that kept him firm on my belt,

Whether at Lowes or Home Depot – he measured whatever length he was dealt;

He measured in inches and he measured in feet,

And he sat right there beside me when I took a break to eat.

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Gone before his time – he died so young,

I miss him when I see all those properly measured shelves I hung;

He was like a transformer, made of metal and plastic,

Should I give him a funeral, or would that be too drastic?

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I have his cousin Little Yellow and his other cousin Yellow Light,

I call him Yellow Light because he has a light that lets me measure at night;

Big Blue is gone – but it’s his memory I’ll treasure,

I still find myself reaching for him when I have something to measure.

_______________________________

I measured my boards with him at the ready,

I never feared my marks, my cuts were always steady;

We built hundreds of my raised garden beds and many houses of flooring,

So many projects we built together, it never got boring.

_______________________________

They’ll be other tape measures, and they might measure just the same,

But if something gets cut short, I’ve only myself to blame;

For no mere tape measure can replace all that was Big Blue,

With him in my hand I always measured true.

• Poems