LIFE Poem: Through Broken Reflections, by Soumya Jaiswal

Tearing the ground apart
As the soil splits, it bleeds.
The earth mends itself, weaving back stronger,
But my lips?
Words unravel them
Until I stitch them shut tight
So it hurts to speak.

I face the mirror.
There I am,
Whole, yet fragile.
I reach out to feel, but
fear washes over me like a torrent
cracking the glass before I can.
I shatter myself before the world can.

Eons of tears, scattered like seashells
hidden and abundant
I press one to my ear.
Sorrows echo inside—
the waves lashing,
growing distant but
never gone.
The ocean and my tears taste the same
Both humming the same song.

It scratches the itch away
but each touch splinters another mirror.
Even my own body fractures
Working against me
Splitting when I need it whole.

My eyes buzz like the inside of the seashell.
The mirror stares back at me,
Its smashed surface screeching louder.
But beyond the cracks, I hear the waves
Crooning somewhere
Tucked into the seashell’s grooves
Savoring its last embrace of the shore
before waning away.

I will piece it back together.
Even if the shards are buried deep
Even if they cut me
I will piece it back together.
My fear will not be the victor.

It stays around my wrist—
The shell entwined with thread
Through the mud, the smoke, or the fire,
small, yet unbroken.
still singing
an echo of who I am