I’m teaching myself
to love broken things.
Books with loose bindings
and misplaced pages.
Coffee cups with chipped
lips and snapped handles.
The rusted old tractor
in my grandfather’s yard
that hasn’t rumbled in years,
and the sparrow nest
in its belly full of eggshells
a tabby cat tore open.
A burnt patch of grass,
a pile of glass taken in
by a family of gravel.
An old red oak,
opened and weeviled,
that becomes a home
for new and varied life,
even if it cannot stand up
any longer.
This poem was originally published under the pen name Gabriel Gadfly.
