Kintsugi
poems
- I. Summer of COVID-19
- This time around
- the antagonist is a consequence
- of randomness
- and stupidity;
- Not the usual trail of mosquito bites
- lining my ankles after a night by the lake–
- Not the flakey crust of sunburned shoulders
- and sun-spoiled cider roiling in the drunk sand–
- Not the hurried kiss of a summer love
- meant to be a memory–
- No instead I am accompanied by an unfounded certainty,
- a future I cannot yet begin to imagine
- without compromising the numerous stitches
- already upholding the architecture
- of a life once mine.
- II. In the Dark
- Oscillating between
- despair and
- restlessness;
- newsfeeds
- and skin–
- poems and
- music;
- pasts and
- a reality
- running from reach.
- III. Falling
- Your face in the bathroom mirror
- again staring back at someone
- something unknowable
- wondering how long
- it takes for regret
- to leave
- the
- body
- IV. How
- To move forward?
- To get over myself?
- To save myself
- when I myself
- lack myself
- the smiling
- confidence
- of an untouched life?
- V. Kintsugi
- Begin with love
- and generous fingertips,
- yours. Lace the roiled sand
- between the cracks
- and piece together
- the moments
- one by one.
- Hold them still
- as if your life
- depended on
- it–it does–
- and wait.
- Growth requires
- time. Meaning
- demands patience.