Phantom Pains

Just some crazy ideas rolling around in my head

Broken.

Fine cracks at first. 

They spread slowly but surely. 

They become larger. 

No one sees; it's not what they expect to see. 

Pieces falling. 

I pick them up after a while; carefully put them back where they belong. 

More pieces. 

Still no one sees. 

I have become a master of deception; making the broken look whole.

I've lost a piece. I didn't notice when it fell.

I think it was important, but I can't remember why. 

I smooth the hole over making it whole. 

Astonishment. 

There is no crack where the hole is or was. 

This is new. Unforeseen. Dangerous.

Another piece falls. 

I pick it up. 

A turning point or point of no return?

I turn the piece in my fingers.

It is beautiful.

A moment in time, of colour, hue and texture that will never be again. 

I watch from someone else's eyes as it falls from someone else's fingers.

It is gone. 

I feel the edges of the hole.

The edges blur. There is no hole. 

What is this thing I have become?

A mirror? An illusion?  A pile of dust pretending to be something else; charlatan. 

Still, the effect is striking. 

More pieces fall.

Sometimes I don't even bother to look down. 

I am something else now. I don't know what I am.

Hardly anything breaks off anymore. 

Maybe the pieces are all gone. 

I had thought it would be liberating. Freedom. Endless possibilities. 

Actually it just feels broken. 

Like a missing limb feeling pain. 

Author's Note

Just throwing ideas around. Not trying to publish anything, but I'm interested in anyone's thoughts.