Nays and Naughts belongs to the group of poems of disappointment, a reflection on overcoming setbacks and finding resilience as well as support.

Nays and Naughts – Poems of Disappointment

All the no’s and zeros fell
 And all the trees and people barely cling on;
 some by their roots, some by their teeth.
 And one child, dealt blow after blow, says no
 and marks a thick black x across his page. Now,
 the child pukes and stamps his feet to crush
 the back-breaking straw. No love, no word, no embrace
 can fuse his spine or glue his legs back on his torso, 
 his head’s rolling down the hill
 toward the black ocean. The moon looks on, 
 the wind strokes the child’s head, his breath now hopping
 from church to cloud to the top of a skyscraper
 down to the edge of the tree’s roots. They see her, 
 the old lady next door, the postman delivering cars and 
notices to quit, and the boy on crutches, a football fanatic, 
 traps the head before it hits the black ocean. 
 And the roots of the tree mouth her breath, drawing it
 down into the moist nest in the mud. Unable to
 jam the head beneath his arm and still walk with crutches, 
 the boy kicks the head across the park 
 with his weak leg, 
 as far as the graffiti-marred trunk where
 the wind and moon stop it. 
 His breath or hers have slipped and settled 
 into the arms of the tree extending 
 upwards, sideways, and down toward 
 her legs, his arms, the head, 
 beyond all the nays and the naughts, 
 binding and stitching limbs.