(de)filed
Matt Robinson
i had a rubber band
that i wrapped
around a chapbook (filled with rough drafts of poems),
and one day
i took the book (out)
to read.
now, while removing that restraint
that kept it all together,
(all neatly in the book - bound (and gagged)),
it broke.
word shrapnel: phrases, commas, periods -
all on scraps of paper, envelopes, and
old pay stubs -
came violently alive.
no longer neatly stacked and filed -
an alphacarpet for my floor.
i didn’t rush
to clean it up, (put
them neatly in their place),
because
it seemed they need not have
just
one.
