Fine Porcelain

Thirty years of back and forth;
the houses, the kids, the grandkids.
Time in two coffee cups
on a stone counter stained with memories
She remembered their lovemaking
as one would remember cracks
in a fine porcelain vase,
repaired but not invisible,
able to be used
but nothing that could hold
something real, only imitations,
paper or silk.
She knew how it got broken,
who was responsible,
who tried to repair it
so it would seamlessly blend
into the patterns of their life.
What she didn’t know
was how long it would last
before the glue along the edges
yellowed, dried, splitting it
into jagged pieces that could,
(if one wanted),
be used to create a mosaic,
one with a different story.
Or all the shards
with the half-truths exposed
could be swept into a dustpan,
emptied into a bin,
the powdery remains vacuumed away,
gone as if nothing ever happened,
but that would be a lie.

Charlene Stegman Moskal is published in numerous anthologies, print and online magazines including: “TAB Journal”, “Calyx”, and “Humana Obscura”. Her chapbooks are “One Bare Foot”, (Zeitgeist Press), “Leavings from My Table”, (Finishing Line Press),“Woman Who Dyes Her Hair”, (Kelsay Books), and a full poetry collection, “Running the Gamut”, (Zeitgeist Press).