when something is broken we
immediately
rush to fix it
scramble for the shattered
glass on the floor
sew back together thrift store clothes
put cracked dishes back into the back
of cabinets so maybe no one will see
scrub stains til the cotton wears thin
and tears
super glue soles back to favorite pairs
of boots
duct tape car windows
share desperate kisses to cover
the lack of conversation
and I understand,
I do
the urge to fix
and to heal.
it’s a human characteristic,
healing
and many times we think
not fixing something
or someone
is giving up on it.
I tend to think
in grays and tans
and sometimes blues and reds
but
never blacks and whites.
In gray and tan thoughts
I find that broken things have
a beauty that fixed things
just don’t
and just can’t.
I see beauty in the
three-legged cat hobbling
on my back porch
and in my shed that has
needed a paint job for decades
and in the way that “I love you”
doesn’t quite sound as good
as when I was sixteen.
I think it’s because there’s something
deeper
and better
in the time after pain
perfection is not
a synonym for beauty
look it up, if you want.
if the world was as perfect
as we all dream it would be
if we all got our wonderland fairytale
endings
we’d surely find a way to want something more.
in broken things we see the yearning
and we see the good in the things that are whole
and we see that some things are meant to stay broken
that throwing away a torn pair of shoes isn’t
giving them up
it’s accepting a truth
that things break and grow old
just like people and love
but then things grow and enter in
and fill up and redeem
the cycle of breaking and healing and feeling in between
is a human condition that
we should admire.
to dwell in the broken,
to accept the failures,
to know which battles to
fight
and which dishes to save
and which stains to let win
is to truly see
beauty.