image from freepik.com
Not: although autobiographical, this poem IS NOT an expression or reflection of my marriage to fellow Souper, Bill.
poem submitted to "Broken Promises" poetry contest, Silent One, sponsor, 6/26/2026
"Broken vows are like broken mirrors. They leave those who held to them bleeding and staring at fractured images of themselves." — Richard Paul Evans I held our wedding vows like glass clear, fragile, meant to shine in the quiet rooms of our shared life. But over time, he set them down hard, let them slip, let them shatter until I stood barefoot in the wreckage of what we once promised. He stopped cherishing me the way the vows required~ no longer holding me dear, no longer tending the small, daily tenderness that keeps a marriage alive. Instead came blame, sharp words, and the kind of silence that bruises more than the shouting. Broken vows cut differently than broken objects~ they slice inward, leaving the one who kept them bleeding in places no one sees. I stared at the fractured mirror of myself, of your choices, trying to recognize the woman who once believed we were unbreakable. One by one, I gathered up the broken pieces refusing to let his violence define my reflection. I dragged myself out of the glittering wreckage piecing together whatever parts of me hadn’t been crushed~ understanding that a vow by only one heart cannot hold a marriage upright.
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