Heart The heart shifts shape of its own accord—from bird to ax,
from pinwheel to budded branch. It rolls over in the chest,
a brown bear groggy with winter, skips like a child at the fair,
stopping in the shade of the fireworks booth, the fat lady’s tent,
the corn-dog stand. Or the heart is an empty room
where the ghosts of the dead wait, paging through magazines,
licking their skinless thumbs. One gets up, walks through a door
into a maze of hallways. Behind one door, a roomful of orchids,
behind another, the smell of burned toast. The rooms go on and on:
sewing room with its squeaky treadle, its bright needles, room
full of file cabinets and torn curtains, room buzzing
with a thousand black flies. Now the heart closes its doors,
becomes smoke, a wispy lie, curls like a worm
and forgets its life, burrows into the fleshy dirt.
Heart makes a wrong turn.
Heart locked in its gate of thorns.
Heart with its hands folded in its lap.
Heart a blue skiff parting the silk of the lake.
It does what it wants, takes what it needs, eats
when it’s hungry, sleeps when the soul shuts down.
When heart’s bored it watches movies deep into the night,
stands by the window counting the streetlamps squinting out,
one by one.
Heart with its hundred mouths open.
Heart with its hundred eyes closed.
Harmonica heart, heart of tinsel, mettle,
heart of cement, broken teeth, redwood fence.
Heart of bricks and boards, books stacked
in devoted rows, their dusty spines
unreadable. Heart
with its hands full.
Hieroglyph heart, etched deep with history’s lists,
things to do. Nearsighted heart. Clubfooted heart.
Hardheaded heart. Heart of gold, coal.
Bad juju heart. Singing the lowdown blues heart.
Choirboy heart. Heart in a frumpy robe.
Heart with its feet up reading the scores.
Homeless heart, dozing, its back against the dumpster.
Cop-on-the-beat heart with its black billy club,
banging on the lid.
Dorianne Laux ********************
RL
If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...
if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul
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