Amputee

Chaya Tong

I know that nature can make things

imperfectly perfect

Like patches of uneven grass

or the crooked grooves of bark

yet still I wonder if

a tree where stub replaces branch

feels incomplete

as a one-armed man

wonder what we have done

they have done

if they felt like doctors with saws

finished with surgery

success

when they were done

or maybe if they merely drove away

a tree's arm in their trunk

and turned the radio up on high