Good Books Have Frayed Pages
By Steven L Herring

There's a little dirt
under the carpet
The coffee coasters
cling to well worn rings,
chipped at the edges
like laugh lines
on a face mostly spent
filled with content
or contempt

A ***** door ****
with a sticky striker
and a bent frame tells a story
of tough times trudged,
and fingerprints smudged
corroborate the abuse

But none of that matters much
The sun still shines,
and the heart is still beating inside
and the cells continue to divide
so the chance to turn it around
is still alive

The past has passed
The future has only been lined
There is still time to pick out
the colors
to plot the scheme
and make a dark cloud cottony
To make a flower
grow out of a tragedy