Something’s broken – finished – no longer there

I can’t quite name what it is

But I sense it is not whole anymore – not enough

It has been given away ..far too much – far too many times

It has been shattered.. fractured beyond being made whole again

I don’t know when I broke it , nor when I lost it

Perhaps it was at the sight of a 5 year old with human teeth marks all over her

Lying helpless on a trolley at the ER

Or was it as I consoled a young man who no longer spoke

After a brutal sodomization ?

My bet is on the gnarly 72 year old woman who aimlessly walked the dark aisles of an asylum long forgotten

Her hair shaved off and her dignity covered by a mere filthy rag

As I tried to hold my breath and the stench of her unbathed body invaded my very core

There is no fixing this – No replenishing and rejigging

Forever broken – forever changed

With no more left to give