To the plate that shattered on my floor after surviving decades in the waves (Poem)

To the plate that shattered on my floor after surviving decades in the waves 

Is this all it takes?

A thousand small edges cracked sharp again,

One heavy hand to shatter years of earned smoothness.

A life spent tossing in the rocks beneath the great dark mile to the surface

One of survival and cutting shadows and teeth and

I can see you there now, rolling, changing, smoothing, yet you, still.

A fall four feet to end the journey of a million, a lifetime slipped shut.

How beautiful you have become

A life in the depths, born to me from another world entirely.

The smoothness of your largest shard is cool against my palm

You do not have to be whole to have survived

You must change, you must soften