Sometimes it shatters cleanly© GERALD ENGLAND
along a jagged line
If you are careful,
avoid cutting yourself on the broken edge,
some pieces can be salvaged,
used again
Not all is lost
Sometimes it shatters surprisingly
An unseen starcrack,
a little tension,
the weak point accentuates,
the crack spreads
Finally it breaks
Safest to smash it first,
write off as a regrettable-only loss
But if carelessly you forget
first to anneal it,
the excited state is dangerously vulnerable
to a shattering
at the merest provocation
into many pieces
that fly and cut and hurt,
so that after the impolosion
wounds take a long time to heal
You might never fully recover
All dreams shatter sometime
Composed: Sheffield, 14th April 1973
Publications
1987 The Old Police Station (UK)
1993 Dream International Quarterly (USA)
That's the tragedy of dying young. I have scars that still hurt well into my thirties. I'm 43, now. Most of the old scars, I look at them and smile. Gradually, they became old friends. Now, they are what I am.
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