Rita Dove - My Father's Telescope lyrics

The oldest joke in the world, a chair on three legs. Sawdust kicks up,swirls around his boots and settles in the cuffs of his pants. The saw is as nervous as a parrot, The chair shrinks. After years of cupboards and end tables, after a plywood Santa and seven elves for the lawn in snow, he knows. He's failed, and in oak. Next Christmas he buys himself and his son.