Heartbreak
~ written in the ER
The dull sickening pressure
Is what got my attention.
A racing heart,
Stumbling over itself
Is a more familiar alert.
But this blunt sensation
Was something new,
Relentless and swelling,
Like water and dry earth
Mingling and churning
As in a flash flood
Finding its way slowly,
Inexorably,
Blindly searching out the low places
By feel.
Nothing stopping it’s steady movement.
And nothing did
On that day.
This intensity,
not familiar pain,
Invaded the muscles of my chest
Stiffened with anticipation.
Slipping silently between the ribs
Of my caged heart and lungs.
Pushing rudely up into my throat
Without asking permission
Flooding both jaws
With a strong, strange sensation
That signaled something wrong.
The pushy entitlement of fear
Taking over without concern
Or consent.
It was my heart that was
Captured and confused
By this wild rouge energy.
Not by the eyes I couldn’t
Turn away from in the beginning,
And still can’t.
Not the warm young body
I sought and never left
As both our bodies
Transformed into something
More settled and real.
Not by the steadfast will
And stubborn Insistence
I encountered saying
This was what mattered.
No, I had been captured by
That unexpected love
Years before.
Confused by its earthy and
Ordinary magnificence.
Irresistible and terrifying.
And now it was breaking.
Not the love.
But my heart.
A dull sickening pressure
Pushing me
To the edge of the bed,
Over the precipice in the dark.
Nothing cruel or personal,
Just inevitable.
This precious breaking
The final vow
The final bow
To you.