Broken Paths

puddle on asphalt road reflecting fence on rainy day

Stagnant water

pooling here or there

in dips, cracks patched over,

asphalt heaped on asphalt

smothering the earth.

Somehow a tuft

of cyclamen has succeeded

in wrestling its way

through a fissure

running deep and unchecked,

like our emotions that day.

Ten years on, your voice

still cracks

when you say his name,

the weight of loss

still suffocating.

Don’t cry, I say,

my brave face firmly

plastered on.

          But maybe

cracks are Nature’s way

of healing.

Poem by Catherine Jefferson

Catherine Jefferson is a researcher, writer and animal welfare campaigner based in West Sussex, UK. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Veganism: An Online Journal, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Plants & Poetry Journal, The Field Guide Poetry Magazine and Wild Roof Journal.