what makes a poet, really?
i pondered this the other day.

do we have to be broken?
a little
disjointed?
unseen?
unheard?

are we all just chipped,
fragmented?
using art to hold ourselves together?

and if it weren’t for that
song
painting
photograph
short story
sculpture
book
poem

would we just crack?

written by kass mangione
2023