I broke your Christmas ornament.
It slipped from careless fingers,
shattered and scattered across the floor.

I stood staring, tears welling in my eyes,
heartbroken,
as if my very memories of you
were in the splintered shards.

Then I swept up the remnants
and got my mop.

You always said mopping was the only way to clear broken glass
and make a floor safe again
to walk barefoot in the room.

Today’s Poetic Earth Month challenge from Tweetspeak Poetry was to write a poem about “the deep-downness of things,” considering what is retained within something, even when it is broken or removed from its ordinary setting.