Should We Fix a Wagon that Continues to Break?

The wheel slips again
again we reign the draft horses to rest
sometimes in the cool of an easy day
sometimes in the mud of a long wet night
repair the linkage
slap the leather
get back on the trail

the wheel slips again
the big mares heel
the hammer is fetched
the wheel is fixed
"hup" goes the call in a warm
breath of throat and song
get back on the trail

the wheel slips again
and yet again
has been doing so more often
I now find myself glancing over
shoulder when the axle inevitably
grinds asunder
the familiar disgust
a growing numbness
when will we speak the words aloud
forming in our minds:
if this wheel and the wagon it carries
is too broken to continue
too far gone to repair
is it time to part ways?

TA