“Cutting Up an Ox”

There are spaces in the joints;
The blade is thin and keen:
When this thinness
Finds that space
There is all the room you need!
It goes like a breeze!
Hence I have this cleaver nineteen years
As if newly sharpened!
True, there are sometimes Tough joints.
I feel them coming.
I slow down, I watch closely
Hold back, barely move the blade,
And whump! the part falls away
Landing like a clod of earth.
Then I withdraw the blade,
I stand still
And let the joy of the work
Sink in.
I clean the blade And put it away.