Rick Campbell: Another List of Things I Have Attended to Sloppily

The wheelbarrow’s mismatched handles, 
one sideways so that it’s narrower
                               than its mate. 
 
The garden gates, once my pride, now
slanted, ajar, hinges rusted and failing.
 
The rails of Della’s tree house
that somehow escaped their nails.
 
The driveway, forever rutted,
waiting its promised gravel.
 
The Chinaberry trees, invaders
that grow like weeds.  
 
The red heeler who so hates a bath.
The gutters--pine straw and dirt
                                turned to mulch. 
 
The roof, compromised, its leaks.
The front doorknob rattling, loose,
                                that one day will 
 
fail to let me in. The unspoken 
that can never be repaired.

Rick Campbell is a poet and essayist living on Alligator Point, Florida. His latest collections of poems are Gunshot, Peacock, Dog. (Madville Publishing, 2018) and Provenance (Blue Horse, 2020).

Copyright © 2020 by Rick Campbell. Included in Vox Populi by permission of the author and Blue Horse Press.