She stood outside
and looked in the gift shop window.
So many things to see
but her favorites were the glass sculptures.
So elegant, so beautiful.
She came here often
to admire,
these sculptures filled her
with a peace
she thought lost forever.
She longed to go in,
touch or buy one,
but she didn’t dare.
Thanks to a husband
who had left her with nothing but debt
she couldn’t afford one,
and she didn’t trust the clerks
not to accuse her of breaking one
and making her pay for it.
People were awful,
not to be trusted,
her life had taught her that.
But here, at her magical place,
she could forget life’s cruelties.
Here, she could find beauty.
There was a new sculpture today,
a glass dolphin leaping
out of a choppy glass sea.
So graceful, so majestic,
she paused longer than normal
just staring at this new piece.
She was so enthralled
that she never noticed
another woman standing next to her.
“Amazing what they can do
with a handful of sand isn’t it?”
With that, the woman walked away.
Sand,
of course she knew that glass
was made from sand,
but she seldom thought about it.
She felt a burst of hope in her heart.
Maybe she wasn’t hopeless,
maybe all people weren’t awful.
If a pile of useless, common sand
could become something so beautiful,
what then of people?
What then, of her?