Poem for Palm Sunday
Your bone broke into four pieces, the surgeon said.
North south east west
Summer, autumn, winter, spring
The earth, the air, the fire, the water
Return return return return
No return
She’s broke and won’t ever be just like before.
It’s her season of the upper extremity –
This whole shattered world crumples there in
the two-by-four she used to call her arm.
On a scale of one to ten, how extreme is your pain, the nurse asks.
Some of the Things that Break at or on Nebraska Knoll:
Ball valves
Hydrometers
Pipes
Pumps
Dams of ice in the lines
Tree branches
Fittings
Momentum
Weather
One-hundred-dollar bills
Stamina
Hope – rather, hope shatters.
Lightbulbs. We’re required to use the shatter-proof kind, but they do break.
Rhythm
Spirits
Work shifts
Dawn
BREAKING NEWS: Yesterday the pumps and crew rested at last after an eleven-day siege. The crisp cold air felt so good and so right. Today is another gorgeous day but milder; by noon the thermometer had already climbed to 30 degrees. We may get a run.
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 