knockoff

knockoff

reaching down for my nightstand sockdrawer i clumsily elbowed a small vessel I’d made years ago over the edge of the nightstand

and it fell and being brittle shattered

but though it will no longer serve to hold keys or coins I as a potter am oddly grateful to get a look at the shattered vessel wall and note with satisfaction if not smugness that the vessel’s wall is both thin and even

and i have many vessels and the ability to make more and so the loss is minimal and perhaps not even a loss but an opportunity to pair this brokenness with an undamaged comrade so that they represent two states of being

I’ve placed them on a sheet from a black-paper sketchpad that with its series of rectangular holes resembling film sprockets symbolizes how cinematic the conversion of a vessel from whole to shards may be

and the title is that fine French phrase “c’est la vie” which translates to “this is life”