a thing restrained in frozen pain.
I seized a mallet,
gathered chisel
and sought to free it from the grain.
I chased and cleared its wooden fetters
rapping, tapping
twisting, parting,
granting it the sight of light.
I worked into the dim of night.
One final tap, its form revealed
I worked the oil into its skin
Complete, complete, the thing within.
Men’ll too lil day, my lil.
Or so I thought
until the morn
when by the view of dawnish light
I saw the spirit bound, its plight
still trapped, not free at all, at all
but struggling now with all its might.
I pulled across it rasp and gouge
to try to part its wooden chains
to snap the bindings that remained
reduced its form
I risked its life
searching still, insistent knife
to free elusive sprite inside.
Until too far I probed, my err
destroying now the thing I loved.
I saw its life quick fade dim stare,
dim stare at me, the man above
The spirit in my hands then waned
The spirit in my hands then died
My tools, my will could not restore
The thing I loved, the thing I bore
leaving only shards and cold
just shards and dust upon the floor.