Intrepid Heart

A lover leaves,
Mortality’s pulse stutters in silence.

Grief presses against the ribs like a scalpel,
pausing the will to continue
as if the body itself questions its contract with breath.

beats, not because it is whole, but because it is enigmatic,

a personification of the mysterious.

There was a time…

ER prepared for mending a life’s fading cadence

In a chest split open with precision

as heart’s rhythm was held hostage by machines,

where each beat became a negotiation between life and steel.

Murmured words were exchanged between surgeons,

as if the exposed chambered walls might overhear the cautionary concern,

the motion of fragile maneuvers.

How heroic this heart of stalwart possession

holding fast once again

its rhythm without permission,
a surreal partnership with the mind,

a life’s dependency

on muscle and current,

tenaciously ever faithful.