Broken

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