cardiac

last week, my brother dropped his heart 

on the pavement and we both 

watched as it cracked right open, 

spilling in red ribbons and golden gears 

like a lipstick kiss smack-dab on the sidewalk. 

it was his fault, mind. only a fool 

goes around with their heart out of their chest, 

tossing it up and down 

like it's a softball ready for a pitch. 

i told him so, told him i wasn't going to 

clean up his mess, and he said fine, 

fine, he said, bent over his heart, 

twisting clockwork with clumsy oil-slick fingers 

to see if it could be put back together. 

only a fool thinks cracked hearts 

can be fixed just like that. 

so that was how i left him--

kneeling in a puddle of bloody grease--

because really, little brother, 

what were you thinking? 

letting the world have a claim at your heart 

like that?

yejunee

FL

17 years old

More by yejunee

  • ouroborous

    the snake is hungry 

    so the snake will eat 

    and eat it does, chewing, gnawing, 

    and will you ever notice, little thing, 

    that it is your own tail 

    you are swallowing? 

     

  • abalone

    from salt and foam and scales 

    steal the hearts of stone 

    nacreous shells, dying husks, 

    the honey-sweet flesh that once 

    clung to its bones 

    to die of thirst. 

  • eschatology

    meet me at the end of the world 

    the space between firestorms and tsunamis 

    across the acid oceans 

    and here, where the rot 

    has begun to reclaim the cities at last.