Kintsugi

You will be disappointed
in every teacher
until you meet the one
inside.
Then what shines
from your hollow core
will reflect from the face
of every stranger.
Sinners and shelter dogs
will grant you darshan,
as will the countenance
of the withered rose,
the broken moon in a rainbow
of spilt motor oil,
a mandala
of last night's untouched pizza,
the toothless woman
in a brown blanket
gazing into her empty
McDonald's coffee cup.
Now let the molten
gold of your disappointment
be the ineffable grace

that fills in the cracks 

of the world.

* Kintsugi: the ancient Japanese art of repairing
broken pottery by using seams of melted gold.