Rust

by Stan Galloway

A strip of bubbles underneath
the paint beneath the driver’s door
foretells a problem (that is, if I
don’t address it soon), from last year’s
winter weather. Oxidation
is the enemy of every
metal part, unnoticed, eating
at the very molecules,
bringing instability,
destroying what was made. I’ve got to
grind away the paint and what’s
beneath, down to the metal, smooth it,
treat it, paint it.
                         Now if only
fixing brokenness between us
were so easy.