Inherited Eternity (C) Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Picking up the pieces is never easy - makes you
wonder why bother to blow beautiful glass objects,
fragile and delicate - easily shattered - when these
fall there is such heartbreak, you set up the scene
for suffering when blowing glass, breaking brings

Such sharp pain - why not let go of these ideals &
live in a world of practical realities with its wooden
utensils, metal objects and ornaments, unbreakable:
yet the reason glass appeals is its delightful, delicate
fragility constituting ethereal beauty; though broken

Shards pierce the heart, it passes quickly & blowing
starts the joyful process yet again, just listen to the
tinkling glass harmonica in Saint-Saëns Aquarium
in Animal Carnival, in this world the creative life
process never stops and make-believe 'as if'

Manifests everything to make me ecstatic & after-
wards peaceful & resigned - not quite sure of any
possibilities given my limitations, I go to a dream-
world with infinite scope; I am The Little Mermaid
who received an eternal soul by refusing to kill

The prince who scorned her love after she acquired
legs painfully, she was required to spill his blood with
a long, sharp knife to save herself and return to the
sea existing as a mermaid without soul - though so
lively and alive - her death after many centuries

Would be forever, but victory was assured when she
so loved the Prince she saved his life - her sacrifice
giving up her own being & embracing eternal night
brought enough light to bring a soul to her so she
inherited eternity, great compensation for misery…