Shari's Telling Stories

When the bough breaks
the man who’s raking is
expected to catch the cradle.
Only he doesn’t know
what’s expected beyond
best practices for his grounds.

Then, sure as the sun
does its thing,
the wind blows
and the bough does break
so suddenly until
it’s all he can do to duck away.

Once the cradle and contents
crash into the earth
through the dust from the
thunderous impact it can be heard:
a baby
is screaming from fear and
possible broken-ness.

Now the groundskeeper
reaches through to the child
unaware of any shortfall attributed
to his own self-preservation act.
Quickly understanding that
he’s in this place to
do what he can after the fact.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers