The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry

I Am a Leaking Bottle

Linda Kaoma

I am a leaking bottle

I tell her

I am decorated with holes and cracks

Life broke me

Filling up seems futile

Joy quickly seeps through me

I tell her

You are a watering can

She says

Where does the water that seeps through you go

What happens when sadness comes

She asks

I would rather be a dam

That is full to the brim

I tell her

Are dams not man-made

She asks

Wouldn’t you rather be a river

Fresh water passing through you

To others

She asks

Wouldn’t you rather be in communion

I constantly need patching up

I am a rainbow of patchwork

I tell her

Don’t people point in wonder at rainbows

She asks

But these cracks hurt

I tell her

But is that not our magic

That we feel so much

She asks

Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow with the Life Riting Collective on 21 July 2022