The Picket Fence - a poem about unfinished business

The Picket Fence       By Paul Howlett


I am a picket fence
Long neglected that’s a fact
I am snaggled toothed
And bent
Lots of missing palings
Lots of holes to fill
Then one day
Oh Joy
Oh Boy
The workmen came
And fixed me up
Replaced the holes
Replaced the parts
But wait, what happened here
They left me unpainted
Multicoloured and queer
They painted two panels
And left me alone
I am not complete
Multi shaded and all
I must call the owner
I must raise a stink
I look like a fence
That was never complete.
　
　
　
This poem reflects my view of a fence of a corner house that I pass everyday on the way to the shops. There are a set of traffic lights at this intersection, and if you have to stop for a red light, you get to look at this poor old fence. The house and fence were in a sad state for years, as the owners of the house, an old Queensland, were gradually renovating the building.
Then one day they replaced all the missing palings in the picket fence, and I thought “Yeah“, they are going to finally fix the fence. Then they painted two and a half panels of the fence with nice white paint. Then nothing…The fence looks ok, except that all the replacement palings were a lot of different shades of colour. I guess that the renovators used second hand palings. The whole place has never really been finished, there are people living in the house, whom I assume are renters, (otherwise they would paint the fence)!
I just wishfully hope that one day, they will fix the fence!