Salvage

By Kay Ryan
 

The wreck   

is a fact.   

The worst   

has happened.   

The salvage trucks   

back in and   

the salvage men   

begin to sort   

and stack,   

whistling as   

they work.   

Thanks be   

to god—again—   

for extractable elements   

which are not   

carriers of pain,   

for this periodic   

table at which   

the self-taught   

salvagers disassemble   

the unthinkable   

to the unthought.