POEM: A ‘garden of beautiful broken things’

June 29, 2026

By Patricia Ranzoni

KINTSUGI

“Golden rejoinery,”  the ancient Japanese art of repairing an object with a fixative mixed with precious dust becoming part of its design. 

She watched the daylilies

in the yard all June willing

them to open for his return.

The old orange wayside ones

and the pale lemon Prom Gowns

so, indeed, they would be leaning

toward him on just the right day

should he arrive in time.

She wanted to show him

her slate-signed garden

of beautiful broken things —

green depression cake-plate,

ironstone swan-neck urn,

chocolate gold-lipped creamer,

rainbow shards sparkling

‘midst the sedum over the rock.

Brilliant in the sun, all the more

in dew.

She had put the winter coats

and scarfs away upstairs at last

to air the entry for his knock

thinking she had another day.

But she was so tired and he

ran out of time and couldn’t stay.

Didn’t get to see the snowballs

summer dressy against the pine,

hostas lining the driveway at will.

She hurt herself, she knew,

not inviting him to come out before,

swore she’d never fail that again, 

given another chance, another winter, long,
not getting to wave him fare well,

wave his mending heart once more

all the way out of sight up the hill.

—Ranzoni was Bucksport’s poet laureate from 2014 to 2025.

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