Four

Just four years old and the world has collapsed.
Her father’s gone. She must’ve done something wrong.
She can’t see it any other way yet: she is the center
of her own universe. Her brains, at this stage developed
to do little more than playing, figuring out the things
right next to her, scrambles for reasons. It must be her fault.

Four years old, she thinks she will pick up the pieces,
be a good girl from now on, rebuild her immature life.
Fourty years later she looks back. The world did indeed
shatter, and the shards have nearly killed her – literally.
Now she knows – the glass is sharp, and the only way
to stay unharmed is to hold them with loving kindness.