Kintsugi

 

 

(Japanese art of repairing broken objects, often ceramic pottery or glass. Traditionally, gold lacquer is used to piece shards together again, creating a more beautiful object through the acts of breaking and repair.)

 

We are all broken pieces,

Lying asunder.

Our limbs, veins, sinews

Scattered on our paths.

But mostly, it is our hearts

Broken into invisible shards

Fallen houses in disrepair

Though the walls may seem intact

 

Some of us, splintered

By storms we couldn’t face,

Or by disguised vandals

Whom we welcomed as our own

But most of us lie broken

From within, not without

Our own selves our nemesis

Crying within in grief

 

But it is not in lying broken

That our faults lie –

Our sorrows burden for

We await for ourselves

To turn anew, reborn in enchantment

Or worse still,

We await for others

To join us once again

 

The truth, sad though it is

None will rescue us

But ourselves –

We need to gather our broken selves,

Our hearts, our minds

Whatever remains of mine-swept fields

And bit by bit, piece by piece

Join us back –

 

Those who can,

Glue themselves with gold,

Others with silver, bronze or lead

Some shimmer

For unglazed porcelain that we are;

But is it glinting metal alone

That can join

The thousand broken parts?

 

Despite penury, there are those

Who join themselves with their tears

With their blood, sweat and grime

And stare back in disbelief

Kintsugi –

To stand whole again,

Though disfigured, misshapen

Bruised in unseen ways

 

But together in one piece

Looking even more handsome

Like survivors of war;

Though the wounds remain

They will take time to heal.

As the stitches dry, in the pain

We can at least stare back

In the kintsugi of our golden dusk…

 

17^th January 2025