Some die of a heart frozen to ice,
broken in shatters on a marble tombstone,
others suffer a heart so enlarged,
it cannot find a home in its cage,
I hear many live to such excess,
it just gives up in disgust or disease,
a few leave it behind, abandoned,
to be trampled under the feet of masses;
on occasion the cherub with arrow and bow
smiles at the agony left by his piercing blow;
millions saw their last sunlight in a trench,
when their insides were sublimed by copper,
now I wonder is it possible also to expire,
from a shrunken heart the size of a pea?
I ask why in this land of dreams among us all,
there would be no nurturing to this one,
littler, shier, out of place among the giants;
its faint beat, unperceivably, becomes quieter,
pea among peas, soon a little it shrinks again until…
finally it vanishes, forgotten, invisible and alone…
Fabrice B. Poussin
Fabrice Poussin teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry,
his work has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and dozens of other magazines. His photography
has been published in The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review as well as other publications.
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times his publications include All the Babble of the Souk and Cartoon Molecules collected poems and Key of Mist the recently published Tesserae translations from Spanish poets Guadalupe Grande and Carmen Crespo visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (Leeds University) .