The Happy Handyman's van
has just come down my street.

It's easy to be happy
when you have ladders in your roof rack.
It's easy to be happy
when you have chalk guns and putty knives,

when you have pliers
with snouts like gars.
It's easy to be happy
when your work boots are burnished

and your cuffs are rolled
and your clipboard is aflutter with work orders.
But here, in this house,
the doors of perception are swollen

and must be shouldered open.
Here, the windows of opportunity are stuck
here the ladder to paradise is a hard climb
and long haul, but my foot's to the first rung.