The Heart has Four Valves

(a cento)


     The heart is not where
the heart should be

I read a book about microbes and fungi, how these critters
find a way into us, never leave 

What else to know
of loss but how
a man's breast might cool
beneath your fingers

I created more loss where I meant to make less

Here, my one raucous prayer
coaxed from this poor drum,

my double heart

More than enough
is what I keep
getting

We are kin of the same ilk

here you are, a resurrection





Line sources:
Rigoberto Gonzalez; Martha Silano; Paisley Rekdal; 
Dan Beachy-Quick; Patrick Rosal; Lia Purpura; Linda
Hogan; Eleni Sikelianos and Courtney Stephens