The Receiver Of Wreck

It takes its toll, you know, when you collect
so many bruised apples and broken parts;
when the sea concedes so much submerged wreck

into your hands and expects that your heart
will not be heavy from such a levy,
from the pricking of all these poison darts,

from the cost of fostering unsteady
fledglings, from stitching and tending their wounds
before letting them fly free, when ready.

Ross Thompson.