Broken Mug

By Claudia Wysocky

It was a cold, clear day in the second week of April.

I remember that it was a Saturday and that I was in the kitchen

making coffee for the two of us.

I remember taking the cup from me and holding it up to the light

to see if it was clean. There was a smear of coffee on the rim,

but the coffee inside was still clear.

I remember how the light shone through the coffee

and made the liquid glow.

I remember how he stood over me then, and how my heart

fluttered like a bird. I froze.

He took the cup from my hand and threw it against the wall.

It shattered into a thousand pieces and I remember watching

as they fell to the floor like rain.

I opened my mouth to tell him that it was his fault,

that he should have known what he was doing, but then I remembered

that it was me who did that to us.

I took the broken pieces of ceramic and put them carefully in the sink

in case there might be some use to them later.

I cleaned the place I had thrown my heart at,

cleaned the place I had thrown my soul at.

I swept up the pieces of my life, as dull and meaningless

as the fragments of ceramic.

I carried them to the garbage and threw them in,

along with the fragments of my body.

Claudia Wysocky, a Polish poet based now in New York, is known for her ability to capture the beauty of life through rich descriptions in her writing. She firmly believes that art has the potential to inspire positive change. With over five years of experience in fiction writing, Claudia has had her poems published in local newspapers and magazines. For her, writing is an endless journey and a powerful source of motivation.