Once as an infant, this heart was tender
Fresh from the clouds, the angels its mender
Shepherded down by feathers of splendour
Gentle descent to mother's surrender

Quickly the heart soon received its first wound
Shocked by a shouting and beat by a spoon
Whirling and furling into its cocoon
Baffled by thunder, the raging monsoon

Timid, it peeked out from under its shell
Hoping the waters once placidly swell
Swiftly would flow back and sooth the fears well
Quiet the knocking, the treacherous knell

Alack, water wracked with havoc by storm
No longer placid, from flacid, walls formed
White waves of horror, they crushed and they swarmed
Swirling and whirling, they hurled jagged horns

There in the maelstrom, the heart shrunk and cried
Nobody noticed it darted inside
Ceded, defeated, nowhere to confide
That was the day that the tender heart died

On that first day, there a thin layer grew
It was elastic and malleable, true
Yet it was gray in a shade that was new
 Dimming the sunshine that hazely seeped through

Each trenchant blow made stone grow and rock form
Sweetest of pinks into black was transformed
Softness of infant was trampled and shorn
Pureness grew silent, oft violent, forlorn

Sometimes the heart to bright reef would venture
Glimmers of light would seize and be clencher
This was false fire and time was the quencher
Heart would retreat to mortified censure

Now in adulthood, the heart, it is black
Slowly it hobbles, it wobbles, it cracks
Fissures it covers with harshest attack
Never allowing the glow to come back

In cold it travels, where some there are free
This is the heart living in misery
Choking desire in iron decree
Stomping out passion which 'scapes willfully

Sometimes in deepest of chambers it sobs
Falls to its knees and succumbs to the throb
Yearns for a soft touch to heal what's been robbed
Hard aching sore it deplores and would lob

Can this dark heart burst its bonds and awake?
Will its soft core come to fore and rock shake?
Has it the courage to break stone and thrive?
Can it retender and render alive?



January 1st, 2018


Photo Credit:
Jimmy Cardosi