Rendering

Rendering, meaning to portray or capture
a likeness in another medium, as when
an artist might render a portrait in oils. 
Also, to make or cause; to tear apart or 
lacerate. As in I am rendered speechless, 
dumb with hurt, heart stricken at the edges 
of what suffers but that I don't know how 
to fix. Gristle and fat are rendered after
the slow boil and the skimming, as if 
that kind of tending might soften bone. 
I am afraid to do damage, even when the work
promises to be tender. Like gathering berries 
that are ripe and ready— barely any resistance 
to fingers plucking them off the branch, then 
dropping them into a bowl held in the other 
hand. Thick vines spill their unruly fragrance 
from the trellis: that, too, can speak to grief.