bran tub

bran tub

i am sat beside a large tub.
it is filled with light brown soil,
supporting a shrub
that is unknown to me.
perhaps it has origins in Japan.

it reminds me of a bran tub
at a local carnival,
many years ago now.
my much smaller hands,
plunged into the cool, unseen
depths of the bran,
searching for a misshapen gift
badly wrapped in tissue paper.

resting on the surface
of today’s soil,
is a large toenail.

it looks abandoned,
like a tumbled crescent moon
for small people.

i’m not squeamish,
but this feels wrong somehow.
i wonder, how it comes about
that someone’s toenail
ends up waiting for nothing
on the top of some light brown soil
in a large tub,
in a very public place?