Friday, September 11, 2015

The Law that Shatters the Pot

There are days when everyone seems to be dying;
others, divorcing. You lay the porcelain pieces together,
but they don't fit, and the fish are fleeing: 
a wriggle and gone. Scales and flakes
are what we have left: a gleam on the ground,
a flash in the water.

Still, you heft a sleepy little one over your shoulder
and carry him up to bed. Asleep before you lay him down,
and the moonlight signing the floor,
sealing a contract you never knew you wrote.
Knowledge of the law is no excuse, they say:
but they have to say something. Deep down
nobody knows the law that moves the moon,
the law that shatters the pot.

3 comments:

Lori Witzel said...

"...moonlight signing the floor..." and the drowsy weight of that sleepy little boy. Might not fix what's shattered, but the tenderness there's a bulwark.

rbarenblat said...

The law that shatters the pot. I feel like a broken pot these days. Trying to focus on kintsugi, but it's a struggle, for sure. Thanks for this.

Dale said...

(o)