Husband and wife are at their garden chores.
Between them they fill the creaky wheelbarrow
With broken branches, leaves, unspoken sorrow.
How steadily they work to clear the eyesores
The gusty winds that shuttered them indoors
Strewed rudely over the lawn. A house sparrow
Chirps above their silent grief, deep as marrow.
Each sweep of rake unchokes the grass, restores
The garden to its state before the storm
Cracked the columnar tree. They will perform
The act of living—quiet, dutiful.
And out of suffering, not unbeautiful,
Scrape a harsh music, as they puzzle out
The score—to live when living is without.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 28, Issue 4.
Derek N. Otsuji is the author of The Kitchen of Small Hours (SIU Press, 2021). Recent work has appeared in 32 Poems, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crazyhorse, The Southern Review, and The Threepenny Review.See all items about Derek Otsuji
