3rd Place | “Broken Things”

May 1, 2012 10:55 am

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3rd Place
“Broken Things”
John Kehe
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Videos by American Songwriter

In my kitchen there’s a drawer
Where I store
All my broken things.
Like a handle from a cup,
A rusty old pocket knife,
And my wedding ring.

My friends all tell me to
Just throw it all away,
But I’m not ready to.
They say it weighs me down
But I’m kinda used to
Having it around.

In my kitchen there’s a place
Where I hide
All the stuff I cannot face.

Just drop it in and walk away
Then I tell myself
I’ll get back to it someday.

Maybe I should take my friends’ advice
Toss it all away,
And don’t think twice
But I just can’t let it be
For all these broken things
Mean so much to me.

Got a whole bunch of keys
From a long time ago
Ticket stubs from a Tom Petty show
And pictures of people
I just don’t know.

There’s a dried up tube of crazy glue
An old deck of cards
That’s missing a few
And a valentine
Signed, guess who?

There’s a frame with busted glass
A picture of her and me,
Ancient history.
A mystery lock without a key
And an old Bill Withers tape
Of “Lean On Me,”
Lean on me.

My friends keep telling me
Man, throw it all away,
Well I would if I could.
They just want me to be free
But they can’t understand
What these things mean to me.

In my kitchen there’s a drawer
Where I store
All my broken things,
My broken things.