The Break

She had stopped crying, her mother set her
on the shock of metal, the doctor was there,
her mother's cheeks had drained like kosher chicken,
the doctor's hands (dry but damp in seeming)
encircled her small thighs

look, it's sticking out the skin, said mother; it cut
right through, like butter, I saw it happen,
behind her eyes she saw it--a sports replay,
ocean wave falling
from fabled height.

The break is very clean, said doctor.

I let her play on the monkey bars.
I let her play alone.
I didn't think. The day was so fine.
I was thinking the chicken needed defrosting.

It's the cleanest break I've ever seen, said doctor.

I let her--The fine fingers slid up and down the pole
of the girl's thin leg, new sirens of pain
wailed, you could see it, sharp like driftwood
through a lake, shattered china,
clean, the bone