Tabulation
 

What my father knew
he could calculate

with small pad
and pencil nub,
                            factor
length of pipe
and drilling angle

through soft soil
or through rock.
                           No matter
if he lost a finger to metal coupling
or burned in an explosion,

nothing would change
how numbers fit
together on his page—

neatly in lines
like children on a dock’s edge,

              waving.