Diamond Heart

I felt the tempering
The heaviness weighing me down
Tugging at my heartstrings
Begging to be cut

Opened by slitting
An artery
With a page 
Ripped from the 
Ledgers of my past

The tinkling of diamonds
Slipped from my veins
Startled me
With a flick of the wrist

I kept cutting
Slicing open skin and flesh
Revealing gleaming obsidian
Once red and pumping 
Now hardened, black
With shining striations 
Like a midnight lake

Removing one's own heart
Sounds like an 
Impossible task
The only thing holding 
Any one of you back
Is fear 
That the treasures and love 
You’ve hoarded and trapped
Patiently grown 
In a crystalline crash
Could be destroyed or 
Stolen, sullied, or smashed

So I remove it now
Drive it into the floor
Collect all the sapphires 
Amethysts and quartz
I stitch them strategically 
Onto a gown 
Like shimmering beads of 
Truth and memorial warmth

Wearing fragments of 
Heart outwardly
Allowing the reality of my
History to 
Dazzle and scorch
Spreading the look and 
Feel of love
With every sweeping step

I Give away 
Shards of myself
As they naturally dislodge
Weathering and changing the 
Way I move about the world
Eventually, I start to drag 
The weight of a heavy heart 
Affecting me once again

K.B. Silver