A Few Days Into the New Year

A letter to my heart

A Few Days Into the New Year

I took my battered heart on a hike
up to Bull’s Point
up there
in the winter trees I 
pulled it impatiently out of my chest
examined it 
carefully
in the cold sun, and told it
“You look worse than I imagined”
I thought for a moment about giving it 
the cold shoulder or the silent treatment
then it’s unapologetic 
redness began to enrage me
I thought about throwing it 
to the ground and smashing it 
with my heel
for its weakness, for its betrayal
thought about how the rubbery wet lump of it 
would bounce and
slide around on the ground
spitting blood up at me 
from under my boot
but in the end
I decided to hold it
gently up to the sun
in the cradle of my cold hands
and say nice things to it 
for as long as 
I could bear