Heart-shaped and Full

an Ekphrastic poem

You loved me, heart-shaped and full, joys and sorrows, fluctuant times, sometimes glossy, often muddied, transitions and transformations, twisted, turned, and tortured, journeying on separate paths, depression and depletion, anger and annoyance, indifference — our love’s inertia.

The birds that once sang, silent, as still as my steely heart, punched-out, pummeled, waiting for resurrection, like birds in the snow, too late to leave, too soon to die.

New love the shade of winter sun, melting the hard pieces, giving breath to death, giving hope to despair, revitalizing birdsong, a slow, steady thaw, like spring in Vermont.

My heart resuscitated, uncovered, unshielded, healed, slowly, fully.

You, reconstructed as a memory, melancholy, miserable, morose.

But, once, long ago, you loved me — heart-shaped and full.

The anniversary of my first marriage is in four days. Typically, that event doesn’t come to mind when the date rolls around each year. But, the Paper Poetry Prompt below by Carolyn Hastings triggered memories, and I realized my anniversary date was creeping up.

Relationships rarely end well. Sometimes, the end is fast, often with new-found knowledge of an indiscretion or a long-kept secret. Mine had a slow, painful death germinated by indifference.

Time has given me the gift of clarity — of both the bad times and the good.

And, the gift of appreciation that the death of one relationship was the birth of a new, richer, happier one.

Life is all about changes. Many are unwanted. But, if you embrace what you didn’t ask for, you may find what you need. I did.

© Dennett 2022

Thanks, Carolyn for this Heart-Shaped Prompt: