Walking through Pigalle on a Sunday afternoon,
you know, the sort of thing couples tend to do,
we paused at a Chinese grocery store
where we bought two mugs for tea…
or was it for coffee? A symbol of our ceramic love
that like proud parents, we nursed use-after-use
until a sudden slip of my hand
caused one of the mugs to shatter beyond all repair.
You consoled my clumsiness with a kiss,
but without knowing it then: after that morning
we never saw each other again. The result
was more severe than we could’ve imagined:
How, with a single involuntary twitch
I accidentally broke both of our hearts.
Giuseppe Bartoli is an American-Peruvian poet, novelist, and freelance copywriter with seven published titles. Upcoming books include his first trilingual illustrated children's book and two new poetic offerings.