Finish

The verb very nearly
Opposed to the noun form,
One implying the need

To get done, the other
Implying perfection,
Calm, fully completed—

The painter who rushes
To finish a canvas,
A hundred canvases

A day, the exquisite
Finish of the one piece
That took the woodworker

A year to tongue and groove
Invisibly smooth, linked
By the makers’ hungers

For some accomplishment,
Their accompanying
Anxiety no one

Else will see it that way—
Only a profligate
Hack and a waste of time.