Thursday, September 30, 2010

Heartfelt

I'm supposed to share a poem for my poetry class. With someone...anyone. So I decided to share it with the whole WORLD! Or at least the blogosphere. I wrote this last week, and it has some similarities to another poem I wrote a few years ago about a heart, but which I haven't posted here, so a mention of the parallel is irrelevant here. The point is I like this poem's personality too, and its message, which is completely different from that other poem I wrote that's similar in structure but not in meaning. So here it is. 

(I feel like the ending is a little anti-climax/oversentimental...meh. That whole last stanza needs polishing. I'll keep working on it.)

 
The Heart

I am filled with light
and blood.
I am tireless.
Ceaseless.
Unrelenting.
With each contraction
I fill you with life
and take into myself
the dregs of blood,
wearied from their
58-second journey.
I wait for the day
when I shudder
and tighten.
When, rigid,
I let the blood trickle in
and rest.

There are names written into my walls,
carved on my stony altars.
The graffiti of one born straddling a grave.
Here is “God” and there is “strawberries”
and here is “Jacob.”
“Jason Willmore holding his little sister.”
“Playmill” and “Kirby Sentria Home Care System.”
“Baby Molly.”

I am aged with the etching
of words.
I began my life before you did
and in the end,
the words written on my fleshy tables
define you more
than my steady rhythmic thump.

4 comments:

  1. I love that you mentioned Baby Molly.

    You are beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This made me cry. It is beautiful, thank you for sharing and for including my baby. You're amazing :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Liz."
    "Pearl Jam" and "Malad, ID".
    "Donairs", "Moesha" and "Minimums".

    ReplyDelete