What’s in a Broken Cup? - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

[Larry Robinson]

What’s in a Broken Cup?

Not everything broken
need be fixed.
Even the loveliest cup, 
the one that seemed perfection,
the one that fit 
just right in the hand 
and held the favorite wine,
even that cup is only a cup,
and, being fashioned
out of breakable clay,
it was, we could say,
made to be broken. 
The fact it was fragile
was always a part of its value. 
In shattered fragments,
the cup is no less
treasured—perhaps
even more treasured now
that its wholeness
isn’t taken for granted. 
There are some who
would throw the pieces away. 
There are some who 
would meet them with 
glue or even with gold
in an effort to repair. 
But there are some 
who will cherish what is broken, 
hold it even more tenderly now,
trusting its use—
though different—
is no less valuable.
Trusting a fragment 
is sometimes more than enough.
Trusting in every end
is a beginning,
and we might now
sip our wine
straight from the source. 

	- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer