by Julia, 17
Salem County Career and Technical High School, Millville, New Jersey

 

My heart.
As you Beat like an anthem
Admits the silo of my veins, Constrained within my prison-speak,
I shiver.

In the absence of my ribcage
I am
limitless.

At the core of being:
Pain.

My heart,
I have anticipated,
My own forthcomings.
But have underestimated
Strength.

The steady rhythm
Of a poem
Locked inside,
Insane.

Tame,
You have constrained,
The faulted
Dementation
Of your host.

I found a bottle
harboring
The existence of
It's ghost.

My heart,
Your whisper's heavy.
I've heard it when I chose.
Funny,
How it comes to be,
A mimed
Forgotten
Coast.

It's sea
Has ceased
To cease.

It's waves
Have ceased
To lie.

Oh what is,
The fortunance,
Of living in
It's prime.

My heart,
You are,
disastrous.

A ticking time bomb spent:
Readily,
Honestly,
To love with all it's kept.

Keep
Your muscles tender.

Bend them to the moon.

How gorgeously you've lent her,
A target in
It's tune.

Fumigate my horrors.
Banish what you seethe.
Now lay me down,
Admits the sound,
"upon my soul to keep."

Keep me in your prayers, love.
Tell me it's
A leak:

That causes all
My tolerance
To falter at
your beat.

 

Written in response to "My Skeleton" by Jane Hirshfield