Tongue the jagged edge.
Take a sliver from unbuffed wood,
a splinter in the eye.
Blister the ragged thumb
through a frayed asbestos oven mitt,
a searing Pyrex dish.
Barter with the man,
a local artisan of handicrafts
and rustic klatsch.
Pause at the eulogy,
the rough-hewn words of a nervous
nephew’s ramblings.
Hoe a chip-edged furrow
that follows a taut stringed template,
a back yard garden.
Shatter the
slick soapstone,
rubbed smooth,
monolithic
hegemon, art
as expectation,
urban white
expectoration
dribbling down a
close-shaven chin,
stuck on styptic
blood-daubed
tissue.