Broken and Mended

A sampling of responses to the prompt, "Broken and Mended"

By Jack

How to replace your car battery

it doesn’t take long to replace a car battery

all you have to to do is stall out outside your apartment

and call your friend for a jump

unsuccessful, you call triple A

and in waiting you reflect on how

much you’ve lost to get where you are now

a bedroom by your parents, laces for your boots,

what you thought was romance, 

all lost, broken

the truck comes and jumps you

enough juice to roll up that steep hill

but he confirms your suspicion

all is lost, the battery is broken

and so you hitch a ride to Walmart

and march beneath the bright fluorescents 

and distant eyes of security cameras 

to shell over hours of work, $130 worth, 

for a \two-year battery

And that voice in the back of your head 

knows you’d save money with the six year battery 

but who knows what the future holds 

and cash is tight today you think about how easy it was 

as a kid to think you’d live forever  about friends you never imagined you’d be so distant from now but you’re growing happy with who you are, you’re mending

and so you go to replace the battery and follow a long and detailed youtube video as a bespectacled, cargo-short cla man saves you a trip to the mechanic.

I guess sometimes a phone is helpful.

And aren’t you lucky you can drive

and love again

love deeper

laugh more, camp out in the bayou

as if, maybe, someday

you’ll feel whole. 

By Robin

Power to the people, but not all people

Not all men, but always men

Power in the pocket of billionaires

Pray to a self-appointed Christ, Amen

At a podium on a hill, he smiles passively

At the right which is the left who do not applaud

And at the left which is the right who are proud

To pinch our pennies for their weaponry

And drill our graves into the ground

Meanwhile, you and I watch Cats the movie

Eat the rich and steal from Walmart

Summon ghosts from household cemeteries

Mend the holes in healing hearts

Power to the people, whatever power is

The left, the rights a melting pot of kids

Who all got their teeth kicked in

And rug burns on their shins

Power to the people in flower crowns, climbing up th mountains

Singing to the stars at night,

Our gods in lovely patches.

By Leslee

The Tape and Staple Mend-it shop 

is always open

and there’s nothing we can’t fix

at least so far

no guarantees, though, 

that what you bring will ever look the same.

the porcelain statue of Mother Mary

may end up with her head in her hands

and a precious stone where her face used to be.

Breaking is a transformation,

that’s our philosophy, a self-fulfilling prophecy,

and the whole is always greater

than the sum of the parts and

that’s the art of mending.

We know the invisible stitch 

for repairing tears, but the only thread we have

is red, tied off in the shape of a heart

Where the rip once was.

You can trust us with your treasures,

The ones you believed ruined by too much care -

We guarantee you’ll be happy

when we hand you back your broken heart,

pieced back together not with superglue,

but with gold, alchemized to hold -

grief glitters when transmuted, 

there’s a reason it’s stickier than tape 

and faster than staples.

We are open 24 hours a day, everyday

‘cause we know things break all the time.

By Susan

It is hard to choose whether to think @ the 6 pieces of clothing hanging on the back of the closet door, waiting for repair. . .  or the heart inside a body that is also waiting to be mended. Many of the shirts cannot be worn again due to weight gain, but I always donate repaired and cleaned items which makes mending important.

However, the heart. . . ah the heart. . .  does it ever fully mend? I volunteered for the first time to help with our high school reunion so I got the annuals out and went through them noting who broke my hear and who I had a crush on. There was more to my wandering of the mind through time - what are they doing now, did they achieve their dreams, some who have not kept in touch with their hometown or classmates. Then my heart broke again as I looked at the list of deceased class members. It was shocking - too many, too soon, why them? Why not me? This is the true heart that breaks and will never be mended; unless - 

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted & saves those who are crushed in spirit. Ps 34:18

“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, not will they come to mind.” Isaiah 65:17

Unless I see them again in heaven. We will be able to mend all the broken pieces as we sit at the feet of the creator who will mend the whole earth.