Photo Prompt: Broken

Sometimes,

I wonder if I am broken,

if something vital went missing

in my creation.

Encased in love

I am still lonely.

In grief

I am unmoved.

Life continues and carries me with it

while all around me

the world falls apart

and I watch the tears and wonder

what is wrong with me,

why I do not join the general collapse.

Is it the missing piece?

But then I read of women

trapped in loveless marriages

who lost their children,

of men who dare not show their love,

and I weep for them,

for the lives they might have lived.

I yearn to tell their stories.

And that’s when I know.

I am not broken;

I survive

by protecting myself,

my words a shield, a bridge

between emotion and action

because I cannot fall apart.

If I do, who will remain to fight?

There is no Atlas

to lift up the world,

no berserker to hold off the army,

there is only

Me.