Scraped-Out Heart

A requiem to loneliness.

A scraped-out heart,

filled with nothing,

longs for something.

It barely remembers

the vibrancy of feeling,

for other, darker emotions

have consumed.

And, when a hint of

light and warmth

introduces itself,

the heart fully remembers

and desperately responds.

 

A starved man

wanders the world with

a barren, aching stomach.

When food meets his mouth,

he doesn’t realize how ravenous

he has been until

he tastes it.

He consumes it greedily

and discovers his desire for more.

 

A scraped-out heart,

so used to deprivation,

takes what it doesn’t know

it missed.

Here, this hungry heart

leeches off any other hearts

it finds.

 

Dear Heart!

I know what it is

to eternally hunger

for sweet, sweet affection,

which heats and boils

to feeling

the cold numb of nothingness.

I know how it feels

for eyes to water for self

and for heart to ache for

what it knows not.

Inside, we both die,

slowly, for some thing

we lack.

Author's Note

My memories of loneliness.