Words on hold
It’s revealing what gets stuck
Year on year
In the sluice gate
All that mudded water
Redirected, ruining houses
Built on flood plains
Whilst broken chairs
Like erupted bones
Splinter the angry stream
Or logs and small trees,
Held up, banging themselves
Hard against the grill
No space left
For the flow of words
A heart clogged
With jagged splinters
The grist, you’d think
But not today
Today, whatever
Grain is being milled
Out of sight and sound
Is a quiet day
For picking out the debris
One piece at a time