Poetry Friday: The Word is HEART

It’s a cold, sleepy day here in the Midwest. Not even fresh coffee is rousing my brain from its hibernating slumber. But now that I’ve downed several steaming cups of java, in my large-ish pig niche mug from my favourite potter, I can feel my heart start to beat a little faster, like a snare drum in an approaching parade…bum-ba-da-dum…bum-ba-da-dum-dum….

It’s Poetry Friday, folks, and the word is HEART. Feel free to charge up the paddles and yell ‘clear!’ in your blog post today, in whatever prescription the doctor ordered…poem, story, photo, love note to your third grade crush, embarrassing story of unrequited (or requited) love….

I’m listing it today, after contemplating a Five-Minute Free Write but abandoning the idea when I realized I couldn’t keep a thought in my head in a steady string for more than 5 seconds. (It’s cold, I need coffee, and a cave to curl up in.)

Have a good weekend, y’all!

Heart List

1) Sergei was right when he said I’m partial to song lyrics. Always have been. Words seem to steep themselves in the record collection of my brain. For example, with the word heart, now I’m hearing Kenny Loggins’ voice singing something about ‘heart to heart’, was it him or was it Loggins and Messina? Cory Hart, I always sing, when I see someone inappropriately wearing sunglasses. There’s the group Heart, Nancy and Ann Wilson, and although I was never a ‘fan’, “Barracuda” still gets my butt shakin’.

2) I have an irrational fear of a sudden heart attack.

3) My OB-GYN diagnosed me with a heart murmur last year. No, silly, he didn’t diagnose me by checking ‘down there’….

4) I cannot draw or paint for beans, but I can cut out pretty pretty heart shapes like a champ.

5) Yesterday I had a conversation with a co-worker about a certain sort of customer we cannot sell our product to…that sort of customer being prisoners. I told him the history of why our business model doesn’t support it, and said something like, “If ol’ Cletus is in jail for murder, he probably won’t pay for his order anyway, and we pretty much write him off, the deadbeat.” I said more than that, I forget what. I left to go fetch some printouts and then it hit me…my hand…my hand hit me, upside the head…quite literally…this co-worker, a really nice guy, well, his dad is in jail for murder. GAH. Stupid, stupid girl I am. I went back (sheepishly) to co-worker’s cube, and apologized…”I’m sorry, the things I said about prisoners…I mean, in light of what your dad’s going through…it was insensitive of me…it was heartless and stupid, and I’m sorry.” Co-worker smiled and shook his head and said, “Hey, it’s okay…it’s just as weird for my family too…don’t feel like you have to watch yourself around me, I’m okay.” Which was nice of him to say. And which made the day memorable in two ways…Co-worker really IS a nice guy…and that I should sometimes just shut my mouth.

6) Do you ever get that heart-thump thing, like, you’re sitting at the computer and all of a sudden you feel your heart beat outofcontrol justforasecond, and you take a big breath and then everything’s okay again?

7) Number 6) above used to happen when I saw a cute guy. Now it does it because of caffeine. Or the thought of getting 8 hours of interrupted sleep.

8) I’ve always wondered…why do we cover our hearts when we sing the national anthem? I’m sure it’s symbolic of protecting our heart against, oh, whatever, invaders or evil, but why that motion in particular? Shouldn’t we make some sort of motion like we’re covering our butts, or our frontal-bits? Or our brain box?

9) When I was little and we were poor, my mother would cook the most interesting things. My mom made beef heart once. Once. We didn’t want to eat it, but had to take a few bites out of necessity. Please do not EVER feed me heart, it’s just too weird.

10) I heart you.