i am what?

I am the proverb
not taught in time,
the nine stitches.
I am the loose lace,
the trip, the fall.
I am the apple.
I am the bark,
the wrong tree.
I am the fence,
the grass, the greener.
I am the bush,
the bird, the hand.

I am the itchy palm,
the ear burning.
I am the dry well.
I am the worth of water.
I am the other way
to skin. I am the cat.
I am the watched pot.
I am the tears.
I am the milk.
I am the glass house.
I am the stone.
I am the practice,
the preached perfection.

I am the necessity,
the invention.
I am the waste and the want.
I am the picture,
the thousandth word.
I am the absence,
I am the heart.
I am the nose,
the face, the spite.
I am the one
basket, the egg
that didn't hatch.
I am the goose. I am
the walking over the grave.