Yourself

Your fingernails have grown far too long
and there is old food or worse underneath them.
I have brought clippers and I cut them for you,
pinching you only once,
leaving dull crescents
on the wooden bench.
Some fall through
the slats to the concrete slabs beneath.

When I have filed each nail,
and with a careful finger
you have checked for rough edges,
you tell me you feel like yourself again.