Sand

She stood outside

and looked in the gift shop window.

So many things to see

but her favorites were the glass sculptures.

So elegant, so beautiful.

She came here often

to admire,

these sculptures filled her

with a peace

she thought lost forever.

She longed to go in,

touch or buy one,

but she didn’t dare.

Thanks to a husband

who had left her with nothing but debt

she couldn’t afford one,

and she didn’t trust the clerks

not to accuse her of breaking one

and making her pay for it.

People were awful,

not to be trusted,

her life had taught her that.

But here, at her magical place,

she could forget life’s cruelties.

Here, she could find beauty.

There was a new sculpture today,

a glass dolphin leaping

out of a choppy glass sea.

So graceful, so majestic,

she paused longer than normal

just staring at this new piece.

She was so enthralled

that she never noticed

another woman standing next to her.

“Amazing what they can do

with a handful of sand isn’t it?”

With that, the woman walked away.

Sand,

of course she knew that glass

was made from sand,

but she seldom thought about it.

She felt a burst of hope in her heart.

Maybe she wasn’t hopeless,

maybe all people weren’t awful.

If a pile of useless, common sand

could become something so beautiful,

what then of people?

What then, of her?

Author's Note

Please be brutally honest.