Ragged Shirt

A thin blade of grass

still growing toward viability

through the straw and clay

a new chick still wide eyed

beneath her mothers wing

a child trying to unwrap the summer heat

into a good game of tag

he's stumbling around the house

trying to tie all the loose ends

into a tapestry before going mad

as he watches the world

wrap tighter the spools

of contradiction.

His needles more dull

his pins bent

but his hand more sure

as they fire on the button holes

of desperation to connect

to the ragged shirt of love and loss

that dresses us all in humility and hope

and dry eyed searching need

that blisters our tenderness