A Thing

A Thing

A thing for rocks.
A thing for trees,
for dendrochronology.

A thing for dinosaurs.
A thing for coloring books.
A thing for tambourines.

A thing for ginger ale
in airplane half-cups.
A thing for visible stitching.

A thing for grapefruit.
A thing for the Kennedys.
A thing for skeletons

and skeletons dismantled.
A thing for concealer.
A thing for pockets

and what we find in them
after a garment’s sabbatical.
A thing for things,

for finding one thing
in a pile of bashed in
things and dirt and dust.

A thing for the mud
the dirt becomes,
a thing for paleontology,

for using a paintbrush
to clean off a thing,
a thing for you

to call significant,
the thing in your chest
a bee sting, a bruise.