This world will break
you,
a poem
of tooth of blood of bone.
This world will break you.
Everything you own
will break--
your dishes, your window, your car.
Your body will break –
fingernail, hymen, heart.
Everything will break.
It must.
The ice must
break before the river marrow runs.
The seed must
break before seedlings rise to sun.
Every sidewalk crack leaks
newborn green.
This world will break you.
This world is an egg
promising
fledgling wings
promising
flight.