Kinstugi is a pottery technique
using lacquer from an unrushi tree
mixed with gold powder to fix ceramic
cups and bowls. With patient mastery,
beloved objects are restored.
We have all been broken. Chipped,
cracked, smashed and shattered by the cruelty
of this world. The ideal had been fractured -
damaged dreams fragment like loose piece
spinning in a kaleidoscope.
The potter takes the shards and cleans them.
Urushi lacquer is applied, left to dry, then
sanded. The process is repeated several times,
until gold powder completes the filled-in scars.
What once was ruined is now an artefact.
When disillusion has been overcome,
and all the pieces put back in place,
we will share our scars with one another,
and rejoice at becoming more precious
than we could have ever imagined.
published in Poems, an anthology with Sourav Sarkar
Cooch Behar, India, 2025
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