Broken Fragments
Only a bit of broken glass
Half concealed in the tangled grass,
But the sunbeam found a pathway through
On its arrow flight from the vault of blue
And straight through the weed grown thicket came
To touch that glass with its kindling flame.
Only a sunbeam’s glinting gold
On a splintered bit that we now behold
Rich with crimson and purple sheen
Autumn yellow and vernal green
Until, transfigured, it glows arrayed
In the rainbow aura the sunbeam made.
Only an old man bent and gray
Gazing into the far-away.
Human wreckage forlorn and lone
But his face with a sudden glory shone.
Was it the sunbeam’s magic wand
Or hidden splendors he glimpsed beyond?
Only a bit of shattered glass,
And a poor old man that we idly pass,
But the shard like a diamond, glittered bright
And the time worn face suffused with light,
When the gates in the jasper walls swung wide
And those broken fragments were glorified.