Dawn Garisch
A toy horse falls from the shelf, breaks a leg.
The small boy, tearful, shows an uncle
who gives him a tube of glue:
The boy tries hard like he always does,
not knowing how to fix
his parent’s domestic mess.
The horse leg sets, stuck back skew,
now it’s lame, he’s made things worse.
His father’s long gone, but he’s to blame,
the glue of family rendered useless.
The boy wanders out of the house,
climbs the tree, sits by himself, sick
with crying. Wanting his father
joined to his mother, wanting
the father to come home to help him.
What he wants is impossible, so he prays
for the leg to be restored like magic,
so he can ride away.
Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow on 18 August 2022