“Fragments, Revisited”

 

c. 2025 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(8-25)

 

 

Fragments falling from a building ledge

Or a crumbling facade

Bits of self, dispersed

Scattered and slung around without care

As if no one was there

To catch this surrender

Gravity has put asunder

A lifetime of placements, purposeful and prudent

Each thing in its spot

As my grandmother advised

I might have shrugged off this turn of events

Accepted the failing

In deference to common sense

But there was a tingle of regret

On my skin

An uneasiness, watching this process begin

Pitter, patter, does it matter?

I could not escape my reluctance

Narrow-eyed and terse

Searching for a poet’s verse

To ease the hurt

My palms pressed hard against the breakfast table

Cursing softly

As I rise after a bowl of corn flakes

The day brings a mockery

Which doubters decree

Laughing and loathsome, they wait

Just outside my field of vision

Yet close enough to be heard

Rude and restless, with taunting words

A trail of embarrassment

In their wake

Fragments of a broken mirror from over the bathroom sink

Fragments of a window pane, long past repair

Fragments of a bicycle innertube, worn and rotted out

Fragments of a keepsake wrapped in cloth

Fragments of a story never finished from first grade

A love sonnet that did not mature

Fragments of pencil lead in a desk drawer

Fragments, fragments, of nevermore

A leftover bounty of waste

Indicating an impulsive episode of haste

That precipitated this collapse

Rock showers

Debris flying free

I hold a book over my head like an umbrella span

Hoping to avoid, this gaping, gasping void

Which yawns like the maw of a sea creature, waiting to be fed

Sharp teeth poised

To chew at my daily bread

Despite their appetite

Oddly, I feel no fear

When beholding this shift

This hard rain of displaced stones

I dodge and dance

Letting these jagged trinkets

Find their level

A dusty, dirty, cascade of pebbles

Jutting up from the sidewalk squares

Once the noise has abated

And I am safe in the street

Then, I land on my bare feet

With a rabbit jump and frog leap

The horseplay is finished

Sweat trickles from my nose and cheeks

At the end of a long week

This duty is complete

Sing the siren song

Bang the gong

And be gone