Mundy Hammer

In the steel mill where the plates were rolled,

Big Peter swung a Mundy hammer 

As a child might swing a twig to thrash down nettles.

The yard-long shaft worn to a shine by blackened hands.

The head a bullet of dull steel.

The brutal impact—shattering, splintering, destroying.

A last resort, when more than simple strength was needed,

The bounce of the blows shuddering through the shoulder,

The racket of its striking echoing through the mill.

A shift for which I was not fit,

A skill for which I had no aptitude;

The hammer handed to the better man.

How he would have mocked the very thought

Of seeking to fix in words his violent ballet.

*Mundy (n): a kind of heavy hammer used esp by shipwrights.  [prob f name of shipsmiths J Mundy (Robinson ed., The Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen UniversityPress)