‘On the Sale of a 1,000-Year-Old Craquelure Chinese Dish for £10 million’ by Phillip Whidden

~ Dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners facing persecution in China

Brutality meets decency and then
What happens?  Hardness softens, or it cracks
A little.  Craquelure might happen when
The decency is struck.  Unless an axe
Completely shatters bright compassion, right
Can still survive, strong, beautiful, and calm.
If brutal fists can smash its glow with might,
They may be harmed, or like a rain-slicked palm
The decency may rise.  It sticks to truth
Both bendingly and also with no bend.
Forbearance that is pure will live in youth
Forever.  It should see no bitter end.
__The lovely vases are repaired or
____Cast on wheels again.  Kindnesses will soar.

Reference: https://www.metro.news/1000-year-old-chinese-dish-just-5in-wide-is-set-to-fetch-10m/754205/

Phillip Whidden is a poet published in America, England, Scotland (and elsewhere) in book form, online, and in journals.  He has also had an article on Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum est” published in The New Edinburgh Review. www.phillipwhidden.com