The vase within - © Brian Holmes - Poetry - http://maxpages.com/quillofthesoul/TheVaseWithin

The vase was expensive. It was delicate.
It was a treasure. It was my treasure.
I kept it locked away for such a long time.
If no one touched it then it would be safe. Never getting dirty, never breaking.
I locked it away out of harms way. It was safe.
Then I let others see it, touch it. They were careful with it.
They just gave it back after they were finished.
The vase was still safe.
Then I started to give it to people.
That's when things went wrong!
One by one, they dropped it, smashed it.
After one dropped it, I took it back.
I fixed it.
At first it was quite easy. When it broke, the pieces were large so fixing it was simple.
But as time when on, as each person broke it, the pieces got smaller.
It started taking longer to fix, harder to repair.
But still I was foolish.
I still kept giving the vase out, and people still kept breaking it.
Now it's at that point beyond repair.
I cant fix it no more.
It's been broken for the last time.
At first, I used to get upset.
But I guess I got use to trying to put the pieces back together.
Now It don't bother me that my valued vase is smashed again.
I got it back, only it's not a vase anymore.
It's just a cluster of small pieces. I cant repair it anymore.
So I've just locked it away.
I'll leave it there for good now.
It can't be broken any more, It's value has gone.
Its just a mess that's locked away where no one will ever find it.
And no one can break it any more.

© Brian Holmes 1998

quillofthesoul@googlemail.com

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Page Updated Sun Sep 24, 2000 10:29am EDT