The Heart is a Pump

When your heart is broken open 

and your love spills over the floor 

don't try and put it all back in too fast

Spilled love, and you know exactly what I mean

is better seen

as a sheen 

to peer into and poke up from its underside 

so that you may see what it was from 

both

sides

the poverty in the thing

and the incomparable beauty

and when you are done looking through

you may chose to let the dog have it

or give it to the Earth

but what you must never, ever do

is want it back

it was never yours, never 

you just held it with tenderness

until its end of wanting to be held

it is the understanding that you get to keep

it is the heart's way, the growing pains of wisdom

then it fills again, your heart

holding more