APAD 2: Pegs

Pegs

Before there were pegs,

sheets draped bushes

lounged on rocks

or sagged over tent ropes

until there was a wind

and they kissed the dirt

 

slips of wood made the first pegs

bound by rope, then metal

Gypsy carvers like willow so much

that farmers downed trees

to keep them away

 

dolly pegs sometimes

made peg dollies

then from Springfield Vermont

came the spring peg

 

Invisible inventions

unlikely to make headlines

but each a design masterpiece

domestically speaking

 

The spring peg was invented in 1853 by David Smith of Springfield Vermont