I Have Left My Heart
I have left my heart,
I have left it in the sea,
The waves telling me a secret and I murmur back one of my own.
I have left it on the windowsill of my friend’s apartment,
There it will fall into the planter hanging off the window,
It shall grow new, flourishing flowers.
I’ve left it in the abandoned church on the altar,
Letting it soak up the languishing sunlight through the stained-glass windows,
Though no prayer will come to save it now.
I’ve left it next to my favorite book on the shelf,
perhaps it will absorb some knowledge from the well-read piece of literature,
taking from its yellowed pages.
I’ve left it in the lilac grove,
Between the purple blooms on the soft grass.
I’m hoping that the bees will nurture it as they do the flowers.
I have left it with my pets,
My cat gazing curiously at the pulsing movements of the veins and my dog wagging her tail.
They will be good and loyal company for its now aching loneliness.
I’ve left it in the emerald forest nestled between the roots of an ancient tree,
Perhaps there a nymph might find it,
And travel even further into the vast woodland claiming it as her own.
I have left my heart to keep it from shattering,
Breaking from grief and sorrow.
I have kept my stupidly sensitive heart from the rough parts of the world.
I have left it in my best friend’s hands,
And she stares at me curiously as she places it on her shelf,
Next to all the other trinkets she has acquired from me,
Wrapping it in her warmest blankets and shawls with her gentle hands.
I’ve left it with the preschool children playing mothers and nurses,
Giving it to them and watching their faces light up with joy,
While they prepare medicine made of water and an assortment of leaves and petals.
I have left it in the midst of an early, foggy morning,
Concealing it in the ever-lightening dampness.
I have left it again and again,
And now I have found it.
It sits in an ornate locket I purchased at the fair,
clinking quietly against my sweater.
It is not lost.
by Alia Kraus