A small black box with gold trim, a serious palm-sized thing. Its leather is the opaque ironic touch of what it stands for: a promise that always gets taken back. You open it and find the roof of its mouth slick white, a velvet tongue below, a strip of fabric like the flat words of forgotten vows. You know that something should be there; that’s what a promise is, right? But it’s empty, and you’re left only imagining the idea of a diamond

Each facet, a surface so resplendent,
Till ground away with endless polishing
To find innate sparkle magnificent,
O’er timeless glow that we’ve been cherishing.

O the eons spent on its perfection,
Dulled easily without the jeweler’s lens.
What gain had from chiseled vivisection?
To scratch the surface with corrosive cleanse?

What value is in diamond edges smooth,
Where lines mark surfaces with precision?
Is natural shine too luminous to soothe,
So we treat works of time with derision?

Hardened we underestimate its glow,
Its care requires the finest instrument.
The process used to make it shine was slow,
But dulls with the pressure of improvement.

This house is filled with coal dust
inhabiting our lungs
poisoning our blood

It is how it has always been
cold and dark
unforgiving

But there are these moments
of warmth trickling through the cracks in the walls
They are sparse
like the earrings offered to me today
by the shadowy figure of what seems to be my mother
But they are precious
as the diamonds within them
Appreciated
Cherished

These are our diamonds in time
where the cold fades slightly
enough to be noticed
And I
I believe in the warmth of the world again
if only for a moment.

Honey catches flies;
So gently coat all you sow
Smile, diamond eyes

Winter lass shows off,
Her icicle diamonds;
Cold fingers tickle

She dances in the vast plain darkness
With struggle and agitation,
She makes her way through the top
Then goes all the way falling down

She , herself wanted to run
She never knew how to love herself
And yet she knows her worth
More than rubies , diamonds and gold