Japanese tradition of filling
ceramic fractures with gold lacquer.
Not an attempt at disguise:
the opposite. It smartens the faults,
makes them the most spectacular part
of a bowl or vase, like breaks are part
of whatever natural life it has. When
I was 20 I had two spinal fractures—
I picture them filled with gold. Bones
grow back, bowls do not, but still I like
to think of it: lacquer in the lumbar spine,
hidden beneath skin and muscle. I should
have been at least a paraplegic; people
called me, still call me, miraculous, but
no one seems to care how that word
struggles beneath the weight of a god.
I depend on MRI scans showing
the spine repair itself, reconnect.
by Annie Diamond
Appears In
Cagibi Issue 3
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