Brokenness - For Leslie Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

i

her brokenness she touches
with tenderness:
a gentleness her mother
cannot always muster

ii

in her a dozen years
are shrunk to something
akin to five

iii

her awkwardness she touches
with tenderness:
the aerodynamic mystery
of bringing a fork safely
down onto the runway

the studied desperations
of tangled clothes
the wrong feet in her shoes

iv

her solitariness she touches
with tenderness
in dreams: plays, skips
(unsupported by anyone)
across puddles
hopscotching home alone
to her own music

v
some nights she sits and hums
at her window, hand outstretched
to touch with sympathy
the half-dark moon’s own brokenness