for the ache

"What to do with bits of string"

We are expert at extraction, making
something out of something else.
A cat's cradle for the kids. A rag rug.
A torn apart loaf for Eucharist or turkey stuffing.
We take traces of a fractured dream
and devise a plot for a new novel.

Old tires make for resilient highways.
I have a friend who rips out worn sweaters
for new scarves. Women in Africa
roll magazine pages into beads,
varnishing them for sale in other worlds,
jewels from junk. I love to rescue river stones
and beach shells for ornaments on
my window sills. They cost nothing.

Try it yourself. See what lovely new thing
you can make from what is common
and discarded. Including your own life.
Call it recycling. Whatever. Call it renewal
and you're getting at the heart of it. 
                                                  -Luci Shaw