Thrown Away

There are mounds of them.
From afar they look like rollings hills,
From close they look lifeless.
They are just broken things.

They were good things like springs
And wheels and old spoons,
A pan with a broken handle,
A stove with a broken door,
A watch that was used
For meetings and rendezvous,
A broken frame that held
The picture of a loved one,
An old collar, a cat collar —
Did he die? Did he get a new one? —
A scarf that kept warmth,
A broken knife that once
Was a good knife.

As I look at the mounds of things
I see a mound of sorrow
Full of all the pieces of my broken heart
Of all the pieces of our relationship.
It was a good heart,
It was a good relationship,
But they were thrown away
Like all the broken things,
Without a thought for what they meant.

From close they look lifeless,
But from afar they’ll look like rolling hills.

Patrice Capitant 2012