When the cracks grew too deep, and the tape stopped holding,
the ceramic itself began to shift
and I broke

I slid right out of myself and I knelt,
picking through the glass with sliced hands,
trying to assemble it all again
from memory that was only fading
as the days went on
without me in them

I cradled the rounded edges that were my heart
in both hands
as I looked at this heap of breath and lungs
and wondered,
how it could have ever been me.

I didn’t realize that I could never go back,
that we aren’t meant to.

That we’re supposed to build something new