Sometimes you survive
like Robinson Crusoe
alone in a strange place.
You steal what you can use
from the broken body
of your life
before it gets too far away.
Nothing will ever be the same.
The scraps you find
you must now fit
to some new purpose
like bits of broken china
set in clay
to make a mosaic.
They have a ragged
second-hand beauty
and are a testament
to the kind of thrift
great failures force on us.
Never mind.
Take your grief
and make a basket
watertight
to keep your tears in
so they don’t go
to waste
                        

I enjoyed your anger
like a spicy tonic
it made me feel alive
it made the blood shine
through your skin
it made my fingers tingle
like a drug it was
hard to give up
and easy to need
it led me into some
dark places
I never would have been
without you
and I will always be
grateful and glad
to have seen the last of you
and your intoxicating
rage