poem: unprotected

                 The problem is my heart,

                             you see.

                     It just plain refuses

                        to hard boil, no matter what

                            I do to it.

 

                I have tried full immersion

                  in roiling hot seas

                    pickling spices, microwaved

                      depravity, open flame,

                           abdication of duty.

 

                       And I tell you...

                  after these decades, still

                          if you pried off its shell,

             pricked it with your fork,

                    sliced its midline with

                        a sharpened knife-

 

                 you would find the center

                        liquescent, golden

                 running into the shadows of your life's

                     serving plate; and utterly

                            unprotected.

                           

Reviews

[Horizon K.]

Having a heart that is resilient, that continues to look for love and beauty in this world is a beautiful thing. Painful, perhaps at times, sometimes we may even try to hard boil that, imagining if we could kill that part of ourselves we would come across that pain less often. But the heart is the heart... It seems to choose its own path...
...Beautiful poem Marie, love the metaphors here...

[Marie Anzalone]

Thank you, Horizon, I love your reviews; they are always so insightful and gentle and probing- and right on. The heart does choose his or her own path and desires, for sure. I often wonder- what is it about some people? Why does the same experience shut some down, and open others up? Is it genetic? Is it environmental? Family influence? Social adaptability?

I wonder what we could learn by studying the resilient of heart?

[Travis Gibson (poetic h..]

Well done, wonderfully worded.

[Marie Anzalone]

Thank you, Poetic. I appreciate you stopping by with a review today.

[Cool Handless Luke]

hard boiled. cold fish. heartless b***h...these are terms i could apply to some women i know and i understand the desire, having been hurt, to want to protect yourself from the pain; to build up walls or throw on the armor and fashion your heart unreachable. like you i have never been able to do just that. not without medication anyway - for during my hollow years that i was unwillingly cast, i did so yearn to break and be broken, and shed tears upon my cheek. but crawling from that abyss i discovered the truth is that in protecting yourself from the world, you lose sooooo much more of yourself in the exchange. you cannot experience the greatest joys and blessings in life unless you also face the pains and heartaches. i am glad you are my friend (tqm) and egg or no egg, i am glad that you will never count yourself as hard boiled.

[Marie Anzalone]

"But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears."-K. Gibran

I think we in the civilized Western world have learned to shun and fear authenticity. We sanitize nd neutralize the bad things- bad events, bad feelings, bad memories. We deny that badness is a part of being human; we will it all away. Poblem is, the only way to do that, is to close your heart, as you said. I cuss, I cry, I scream, I can be petty and hateful at times. I get angry ofr no good reason, and sometimes love for the wrong ones. I found that it was necessary for survival. After 28 years of bottling it in, I found myself on a desolate mountaintop in the coldest rain you could imagine, rocking my naked wet self just repeating, "I need, I need, I need." what I needed was to stop feeling empty, stop denying the crushing pain of cycles of abuse and bullying and being put back in my place. I needed to just f*****g FEEL something. Surpisingly, I survived that night. Even more surprisingly, so did my poor heart. I vowed that night never again to try loving a child molestor, at the very least. Hey, progress, right? ;-)

Thanks for the amazing review, my friend. Always, Marie.

[iliOZ]

oh yes.
for ages humans thought that the heart is the central organ and responsible for all feelings
i am glad there are a few of us left who still believes it

liquescent? bravo and chuckles

[Marie Anzalone]

LOL thanks iliOZ. I love finding the occasional uncommonly used word and trying her on for size. Especially when doing so clrifies meaning just that little bit more.

[gombeggar]

not so much a problem, me thinks...but is liquescent a word? good work, girl

[Marie Anzalone]

liquescent is totally a word... isn't it great?

[gombeggar]

it is different ;)

[Marie Anzalone]

I am betting yours are not marinated with homemade sauce extracted from genuine Central America itty bitty fiery death bites, though

[gombeggar]

not quite...more of an amalgmation of hunky slovak americanized freakshow...but u should know that by now ;)

[Mike Emil]

you didn't do it right then
i have a rock hard heart of coal and slate
it's not worth anything so no one tries to steal it
i like pickles with sandwiches

[Marie Anzalone]

I have pickled eggs in the fridge. we're even.

[Mike Emil]

so do i
mike always wins BURP!

[kmartell]

courage and truth, oh and love too. mix together, add sea salt and tears.

[Marie Anzalone]

and then bake until done... except these things do not come with instructions or timers or temperature measuring devices- we are left to our devices more often than not

[Luke L]

Gorgeous piece :) I like the image and the way you spaced that set the mood nicely :)

[Marie Anzalone]

Thank you, Luke, and thank you too for the friend request. I am glad you enjoyed my work. I have some of yours set aside as well.

[Luke L]

you're welcome miss :)

[Brandon S. Whitten]

Wow! Splendid read and write. Love that you care for wolves.

[Marie Anzalone]

thanks, Brandon- I care for all the free-living creatures of the world. :-)

[Brandon S. Whitten]

Thank you, as we should. Bless you.

[Emily B]

I think I want to tape this to the bathroom mirror, read it every morning when I clear the dreams away from my eyes, and every night before I close them again

[Marie Anzalone]

I would be most honored to hear that my little words helped you feel less alone in the world

[Emily B]

we are all less alone