"They Cross Their Fingers and Pray to God"

broken boy meets broken girl
and they break pieces off of themselves
to try to fix each other
broken girl loves broken boy because he's broken beautifully
and not at all like her
broken boy won't dare look back to see he's broken
because then everything's fine and the world just stays not a very nice place to be in
so broken boy goes with broken girl
and they get married and devastate when they have children
because the only thing that'd ever make them see they're broken
is the thought of boring it to someone else like their kid
so they stop breaking each other
and they talk it out
and they cross their fingers and pray to God it all works out
so everyday now broken man and broken woman
love whole little children and keep close watch for cracks
because the broken boy and broken girl are still inside them
and when their kids look up and ask them if the world's a nice place
they have to smile and nod and tell them how wonderful they're going to be at life
and then the children believe them and bounce happily away
and broken man and broken woman feel like broken boy and broken girl again for lying
so that night in bed they break a piece off of themselves just one more time
to try to fix each other
and then just lay there for a while holding hands
so then they step back to when they were broken boy and broken girl again
and though they were broken and broken just as ever at the time
at least they both had more time and all their lives to work it out and work on themselves
but now a lot of time has gone and they can't see nearly as clear as to what they should do
as they can see clearly what they should have done
and that really frustrates them because they have little kids in the next room, you know
and how are they supposed to raise them to be whole and beautiful people without someone telling them what they should do
they don't think that's fair
so they lie awake all night and they listen for their kid's silences
and they cross their fingers and hope to God it's working out all right
and they sleep around dawn and then they get up and go to work and feed their kids and kiss goodbye and say I love you
and they go on and on and on like that
trying to grasp on to what they don't see
so later when they're old
a broken old man and a broken old woman
they feel like broken old boy and broken old girl
and they kiss their kids goodbye when they both fall in love
and they marry and run off to live beautifully whole lives and they come back with grandchildren who look beautiful and whole enough
and broken old man takes whole little kids
and broken old woman takes a few more little kids
and they tell them a story of a broken boy who met a broken girl
and they tell them how nice a place the world is to be in
and how good they're going to be at life
and they cross their fingers and hope to God that they'll have the life shocked out of them again when they really turn out to be
like they were shocked when their own kids turned out to be
and broken old boy and broken old girl set back on a porch somewhere far away from when broken boy met broken girl for the first time
where they broke pieces off of themselves
to try to fix the other
because that's just silly, it comes to the attention of broken girl
to try to do that nowadays, isn't it?
because there is no broken boy
and there is no broken girl just one big soul of ours that we've meshed together
and some of the cracks got filled and some of them melted at odd angles but it's one big piece even though it looks funny
and that's just how it went and that's just how it is
and they rock back in chairs and they hold hands with each other and uncross their fingers and relax
never knowing if they believe in God or not they stop praying to him for just in case purposes not knowing if they were lucky because of him or just lucky
but that's okay
broken old man doesn't care
and broken old woman just loves him
and they keep rocking and looking at the sun and somewhere there's a broken boy meeting a broken girl
and they start breaking pieces off of themselves to try to fix the other
and no lifetime of crossed fingers and God's intervention can change what they have for each other and their willingness to stay broken just to keep holding each other's hand