The Artist: I open a bag of tools. Chisel, cadmium, or permanent middle green tangled together as an almost thing. The galvanized steel might help me solve some problems. The drop forged hammer with its Paleolithic promise and a level for this sinking house. This bag of tools have their own lives to figure out while I stare uselessly down into this imagined order that does not include me.

A List of Broken Things and What to Do With Them

The bed frame, ukulele song, red suitcase, beer bottle, marriage, love, incorrect smiles that fail the test of the heart, ignition, brakes, engine or transmission, toys exiled from their purpose, exposed wires, faulty sockets, fences in need of closure, umbrella, the end table, the analog clock, the unopened book, cardboard armor, every stick is a sword. You could defeat a huge monster with all these broken things.