Recipe for a Broken Heart

I can't call this a family recipe, but my daughters one day will. If you are hurting, it's best to start making this remedy as soon as possible, as it is a slow and tedious process. The end result will be worth it.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup of tears. Add more to taste.

- 2 cups of freshly crushed hopes

- Bad dreams (as many as you can handle)

- Ten fingernails, chewed apart

- Compulsive eating (my personal favorite, but you can replace it with your preferred form of self-sabotage)

- 1 lb 6 oz of navel-gazing

- 1 haircut. The more drastic the better.

- A dash of color—applied wherever it goes best. 

- 1 song that moves too fast for you to think

- 1 book you haven't read in years, beaten thoroughly

- A book you've never heard of. Then three. Then a dozen.

- Something green with every meal

- 3 heaping cups of sunlight

- A healthy helping of self-worth

- 1 hands-on hobby

- 1 lb 6 oz of cloud-gazing

- Infinite plans for the future

Directions:

Pour all ingredients into your heart and stir. Let simmer for 1-6 months. If any traces of the past rise to the surface, skim them off with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil until transparent. Let cool before serving. Or don’t.

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McKenzie Kwak is a fiction writer, poet, and high school senior from Upstate New York. She delights in finding magic in the mundane and has attended Champlain College’s Young Writers Conference three years in a row. You can find more of her work in Butcher Papers.