How Are You?

Since you asked,
to be honest today
I’m a bit
shattered,

cracked like
a cell phone’s screen
with a screen protector
slapped in place over it to hold it
together — and

isn’t that a modern
thing, that it’s perfectly fine to be
visibly broken as long as
you function

more less as expected —
so to answer the question
I’m perfectly fine, couldn’t be better
except for obvious
damage — so imperfectly fine
it is instead; don’t press me

too hard on this, 
and don’t attempt to drag
more from me than I 
am willing to offer 
at the risk of drawing blood —

there have been so many
crashes, so many face-down drops
into the concrete, maybe
I’m a bit harder to read than you’d like
but even with all that 

I’m still trying to be of use
to someone — maybe there’s someone
who finds my web of hurt
endearing, a deep story
of fault lines and impact wounds
worth clinging to,

at least until
something cleaner comes along — 

at least until the next
shattering fall
rends me and I fail
utterly in spite how many
desperate attempts are made
to keep me going.

And you?