Cross My Heart and Hope to Write

INCLUDING ORIGINAL POETRY, SHORT STORIES, ESSAYS, AND NOVELLAS, ALONGSIDE ARTWORK AND PHOTOGRAPHY
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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Uhane

The Hawaiians have a word for soul: Uhane. It also means strong spirited and is often given as a name for girls. The human heart is pretty resilient, if you think about it. It goes through a lot - falls in love, out of love; frets; skips beats - all while providing the body with its propulsion. This precious internal combustion engine of ours is like a bridge between the material and the spiritual. There's a reason why every culture, no matter how remote, revels in the symbolism of the heart. The Greeks thought it was the seat of consciousness, a notion contemporaries reserve for the mind, while the soul has stayed firmly  housed in the heart. I'm sure ancient man was aware of the heart as an organ - surgery is nothing new.


Falling in love with someone, particularly, does something to the heart. I don't think you ever really fall out of love with them. You move on, but you hold a part of them within forever. They contribute to the overall you; you are incomplete without them, as little as you would like to admit it. I kind of envision it as a graveyard, without trying to sound too macabre. Everyone we have given our heart to is buried within us, and every new love that is lost is laid to rest. The image itself got me to thinking, "If the heart really is like a graveyard... who tends to the graves?"    

Uhane

Purging the plots marked up on this heart,
Moist soil on the shovel tip, 
I brush off my overalls as I walk across the dirt 
And flush out my fangs with a toothpick.
My footprints will be washed away
Once the angel tears come flying,
But the grass will never reach far enough to overgrow these names.  
Sarcophaguses of beloved lay just below the surface, 
Tombs and relics scattered like arrows in a manmade forest. 
My feather duster serves me well
In this paradise or private hell,
My keys have kissed each lock quite well 
And I'm waiting for bones to break me.  
Built a castle of skulls 
To sit on a throne of cartilage, 
Humming oldie tunes 
And tending to my lineage. 
Prune the arteries, 
Leech the valves with these pipe cleaners; 
My knapsack is overflowing
With the artifacts that make me keener.  
Oh, what a meandering 
Atop this sullen, sunken wreck,    
Suspended in antiquity 
With no tongue or lips to peck.  
Oh, wouldn't it be grand
To band or bouquet, 
Like a barrel of whisky 
Or a bundle of Mrs. Sam McGredy 
Just one 
Of those that have come and gone? 
A smoldering ambition.
This is the intermission,
The space between the spinal chord
And the beat you wish to listen.
Listless melodies 
Pepper scattered wreaths, 
Slight of hand, erroneous 
Bathing beneath their sheaths.  
You will come to find me napping 
With my hat tucked way down low
Over my drooping brow, 
Cradled on the bridge of my nose. 
A hammock to catch the wind at dusk, 
A windmill to blow away the dust, 
A corner for the slime and rust 
To collect until they're beauteous. 
Crouching on a willow stump, 
My rake not far from reach,    
Hands folded over, twice; 
These limestones still left to bleach.   
My eyes may be closed,
But the work is never done
Surviving and utilizing 
All the strength without the sun.
Chancre carousel cadaver, 
The maliciousness of the endeavor. 
Surgical serenity, 
Beside a wilted flower.
Plant my shovel in the grass
Propel my hovel, full and fast, 
The space is perpetual and vast 
And there is much still left here to vacate. 

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