Heart

HEART My doctor diagnosed a heart murmur “My heart does not murmur!” I said My heart shouts for the lives of five kids, for the joy of real love, for the turning of this earth The voice of my heart has a rhythm that must be heard because the size of my heart was long hidden from view, bright as it was, was eclipsed by a moon both mobile and dark But the sound of my heart surrounded that moon, reached around to the world, gave horizons of hope still visible today The sound of my heart is a drummer in prayer, a thumping for the wonder of on-going life and a rhythm for healing the fissures of death, distrust and discord Their machines told the tale of bleeping and blips, of pressure and valves and contracting walls, and on the monitor screen I saw my heart working, the mathematics of its rhythm, the symmetry of its motion and the specialists and I, we agreed on a Truth: My heart does NOT murmur! There is no susurration, no slurring of beats It howls and roars It barks and it sings And like the pulsating sun, it is a long-session drummer, infinite, relentless, pounding without echo, and its savage intensity is aimed right at you! I’m still here, y’all! And I love you like crazy! Emanuel Carter