Chinese Vase

Chinese Vase

 

The weeds have taken

the backyard;

after weeks of rain,

they are shoulder to shoulder

in our small plot of land

like riders on a rush hour bus,

now damp with dew

and up to my knees;

probably harboring spiders

and salamanders,

they cling to my old body.

 

Like the vase

we purchased in Chinatown

carefully nested in a box,

and which finally fell off the bookcase

after a minor earthquake

one day scattering

green and fuchsia fragments,

porcelain flowers,

on the hardwood floor,

under the furniture,

some hopelessly lost in the cracks

of the house.

 

So much to put right.

�"Gary S.