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Posts Tagged ‘duct tape’

Maximum Strength

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 26, 2026| 3 Comments »


                  for Moudi and Taylor
 
 
Starting the long drive home,
I do not turn on the radio
to hear news of the broken world.
My father taught me every broken thing,
from coolers to car doors to roofs,
could be fixed with silver duct tape,
at least for a while.
How big would the roll have to be, 
America? On the seat beside me, 
a green and white striped bag
is filled with humus and cheesy crackers,
chocolates filled with coconut and pistachio,
oat protein bars, dried mango strips
plus a small baggie of pretzel twists,
a road-food care package my friends 
prepared for me in the middle of the night
so it would be on the counter waiting for me 
to find when I left their home at dawn. 
Perhaps kindness is a kind of duct tape—
which is to say it doesn’t actually fix things,
but it does help us go on. What is broken
is still broken, but I can taste the adhesion 
in the coffee they ground for me last night
so I could be awake for this morning’s drive—
hints of cinnamon, dark chocolate, toffee, 
love. I feel how their kindness holds me together 
this morning. How sticky it is, the message 
they wrote for me in sand: you are loved.
The message will fade, but as the world 
goes on breaking, I feel surrounded 
by their kindness all the way home.
 

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