They ask how she grin through that face with that life.

I say I’s never shielded from nothing

‘Cept dying young.

People deep bruised by something

Talk like the world should end.

Won’t catch me dying every day like that.

‘Cause I seen them once

Just once – the cracks in the universe –

Thought I’d fall right through.

‘Stead I laughed – said some kind of God

Put up with a tattered-old place as here

Gotta have some grace for me.

– Jenn Cavanaugh

originally published in America, August 13, 2007