when he asked her for her hand, and
her heart
she ripped her heart out with her hand
and handed both to him
"this is my hand for you to hold,
this is my heart for you to keep
for as long as you want
or as long as you need."
men, they play sports. they play rough
her heart had fallen out of his pocket
countless times
a chipped edge every
time it touched the ground
like having something new to hold
for the very first time
he used to piece the broken edges
together and binded them
with tape
the more her heart fell the more
chips it lost
some were so tiny he
could never get them back
in time her heart became smaller
and the pieces harder
to piece
like a jigsaw puzzle
the greater the number of
pieces the harder it is
to fix
there is a hole in her heart
doctors called it
septal defect
he went back to search for the
missing pieces
he tried elastoplast
he gave the heart back to
her because it was no
longer whole
she is only 21.
she now has to live with a
heart and its
hole.
