The Sign I

A huge chunk chipped off just then,
I remember it going, the crack and split, the
Drop onto concrete.  The road was covered
With sharded bits.  And its form had been
One whole outline complete and unified.  
For years it remained undivided until the split.
And its colour was good, bright with blues
And greens, some pink and yellow too, but
By the time it was done, it had turned a dun
Dingy grey with notches and hollows shading it
Patchy black.  It was a shame really, the change,
All that shearing and splitting until its shape
Was unrecognisable, its jagged lines disguised 
A former harmony of form.
I took it as a sign, that crop of rubble strewn
Across the road, a sign of change but not renewal,
A sign of something passing by and wearing on the way.

previous poem