Kintsugi

How many breaks can a bowl endure?

Even if beautifully repaired each time

With lines of gold 

An elegant map of its traumas,

With each new fall, 

And more lines added

How long before it

All breaks down? 

A memorial cast in gold exists only for others to appreciate. 

Pompeii

Already, I am a ghost amidst the ruins.

No one who even would have cared I'd ever lived remains. 

My memories, sensations, passions, dreams,

Words –

All turned to ash

Already blown away.