Heart and Soul

Villahelle: The Heart of It

The heart's gone broke long before
the body's clothed in tatters,
a loveless hour, a closed door,

some wrinkled folds, driven airs
in which each breath is scattered;
the heart's gone numb long before

loss turns corporeal like a scar
in a mirror that's been shattered,
a loveless hour, a closed door

never granting entry nor
rejoinder to the clattering
heart grown cold and underscored

by summer's passings, winter's hoar-
frosts, heart shrouded in their mantles,
a loveless hour, a closed door

we press against and cave in more,
till the earth beneath gathers round
the heart that's fallen years before
a loveless hour, a closed door.