As Shakespeare said: 71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYvKmuTzABx
“The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack”
Yet the heart breaks so faintly.
The one organ supposed to pump blood71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpF6Tdj99Y3
bleeds with rotten emotion and ripped sanity.
To the size of a fist yet a major regulator,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcZEY8zybd
no wonder clenching feels so suffocating.
It convulses beneath cages of bone,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZ41xcTl9z
bruising itself against ribs that cannot console it.
Strange how flesh can harbor catastrophes71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7QIM9xj49
quieter than funerals.
Arteries pulse like frantic apologies,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFTSr84F854
veins carry remnants of names71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2b8IlvzROD
the body should have forgotten by now.
And still it beats;71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtySUsBITg
stubborn, pathetic, almost feral—71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvmy83GOjK9
dragging grief through the bloodstream71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgssOgMOAz
as though sorrow were oxygen.
Perhaps that is the cruelest design of it all:71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOYOcMw4bu3
the heart does not shatter dramatically.
It decays slowly,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH2AIG62LsW
chamber by chamber,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9IHg0Er3Kt
until even silence develops a pulse.
Until the body learns to survive71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdnYwffzYR2
on emotional hemorrhage.
Until insomnia settles beneath the sternum71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxkvLXWALZe
like a second heartbeat.
Every palpitation becomes a eulogy,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKImDHkdzK
every breath an act of reluctant endurance.
The lungs expand,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjV8LJHf1tf
yet never enough to rid the chest71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0YDNAmSRc4
of its phantom heaviness.
And somewhere between systole and diastole,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwGBecRjERF
grief roots itself into muscle memory—71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzKMSks3FhZ
parasitic, unwavering, immortal.
Perhaps that is why mourning exhausts the body so cruelly;71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9rracHob5
the organs cannot distinguish71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ424wpB4CRD
between love and disease.
Both invade quietly.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNnbdyo2DK
Both consume from within.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC2B0AlU1Qp
Both leave the ribs hollowed like abandoned cathedrals.
Still, the heart persists in its brutality,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0I3SwgQ0Ut
beating through collapse,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5CnRosj08
forcing life into a body71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR0FUfzq1Qy
that no longer knows what to do with it.
71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0tDPOClpz
and then Add to home screen.