Ecce Cur Menum

Heart:

You would expect it to be mercurial:
when chopped into little pieces,
each bit should attract another
until the heart resumes
its proper size and shape.

It does not.

It breaks up into
salt and potassium
and who knows what else

uselessly elemental.

Perhaps even carbon:
I think I have found
my carbon footprint
stamped into my heart,
like clogs of puzzle waiting
to be reassembled.

I have not been good:
pieces of clumpy soil
deprived of its oxygen
have stopped up my heart:
grass uprooted,
flowers black with age.

How easy as a child
to break a thermometer
and let the mercury
swim together!

No more.
Only shards of glass-
and muddy ash.

em