Sea Glass

I was a bottle on a mantel once
Clear and whole and catching light
Then the year came like a doorframe
And the pieces caught the tide
And I mourned the shape I'd been in
Every edge a small goodbye
While the sea just kept on turning me
Saying: give it time, give it time

Thirty years of rolling
Thirty years of grind
What the breaking started
The water made kind

Sea glass
Worn, not gone
Sea glass
Soft and strong
Every edge
Turned to dawn
Still here
Still here
Something new to shine on

Now the children comb the shoreline
Passing pebbles, passing stone
Hunting green and blue and amber
Hunting pieces like my own
Funny how the whole ones never
Make it into treasure jars
It's the broken, tumbled, patient glass
That gets held up to the stars

So if you're fresh in pieces
Sharp with what went wrong
The tide's already turning you
The polishing has begun

Sea glass
Worn, not gone
Sea glass
Soft and strong
Every edge
Turned to dawn
Still here
Still here
Something new to shine on

I don't miss the mantel
The sea taught me more

Sea glass
Worn to song
Sea glass
Proof of strong
Every scar
Catching dawn
Still here
Still here
Made of what went wrong
And shining on

Some things break to end
Some things break to begin