I once heard that if you don’t do small
things, you’ll never do big ones
when the time comes. It might
have been while serving in the Air Force
overseas – subtle indoctrination
to pick up trash even when it wasn’t yours,
or for retrieving any dropped screws,
regardless of size, because the aircrew’s
lives depended upon it. More than once
my head would be jammed under rudder pedals
with feet sticking high up in the air
as a mystified pilot, hands on hips,
marveled at my gymnastics
to find a lost fastener before the job
could be marked complete.
