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I WILL KEEP BROKEN THINGS

Yesterday I stumbled upon my late mother’s retired frying pan.

It looks dejected, with rust erupting from it like a bad rash. Streaks of oxides run across it like ancient tears. Before it got to this state, how many chapattis had it churned? How many rumbling stomachs of hungry village boy had it made glad? How many hearts did this frying pan touch before it got broken?

Alice Walker, the Black American poet talks of keeping broken things. Things whose beauty is that don’t ever need any fixing. Things that remind us of someone who is forever dear to us. In my house there remains an honored shelf on which I will keep broken things. I will keep this broken frying pan which always reminds me of my late mother. I will keep her.

We all have that thing, that family heirloom, which reminds us of our mother if she went to be with the Lord. It may be a physical thing like my broken frying pan above. It may be a whiff of Lady Gay pomade which she used to wear every morning. It may an old sepia photo of her in Afro and bell bottoms, like a girl groupie from the 70s.

We all keep such things in our houses, our hearts and minds, not because they are new, but because they are broken. But above all, because we are broken by the loss of our loved ones which they remind us of.

We keep broken things because we are pilgrims of sorrow hanging on to broken things that need not ever be fixed.

 

7 Comments

  • Sophie May 21, 2018

    I like…broken things that remind us what the many hands it passed through and the impact it had

    • Gilbert Mwangi May 22, 2018

      Sure.We are a mix of what we have been through-good or bad.

  • Diana Waweru May 22, 2018

    True they can never be fixed .The good thing with them is that the memories remain fresh in mind.

  • Soitah May 27, 2018

    I see myself a ‘Pilgrim Of Sorrow Hanging Onto Broken Things That Need Not Ever Be Fixed’.
    I Love It!

  • Karendi October 24, 2018

    We keep them for the good memories they made. We have a big mabati cup with a lid that granda used when he came visiting. He passed on in 1999.

    • Gilbert Mwangi October 27, 2018

      Keep it for his memory-and for what he stood for.Comments appreciated Karendi.

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