Broken

by Michael Dylan Welch, Randy Brooks, and Brett Bodemer

This rengay appeared in 2002 on the Millikin University website, with commentary by Heather Aymer, but appears there without a title and without a publication credit. I’ve lost track of where this rengay might have been published, if at all. If published, it might have had a different title. The first three verses were written on 22 November 1998 at the San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville, California, where we also wrote “The Bowl He Holds.” The remaining three verses were written by email in March of 1999 and later.

hoeing the garden—

a dried frog

broken in two Michael

string beans

snapped Randy

axe blow

cleaves the log

halves rocking Brett

splitting at my touch

dry mussel shells Michael

cracked glass over the photo

her lips parting to speak

in my mind Randy

an eye to each current

egret on the sandbar Brett