Discarded

In the street, I found a paper heart Amidst the detritus of a world that had forgotten it...

I touched its tattered edges

faded face

bleached and water-worn words Now illegible

still hinting at the promise it once held for another heart...

A young heart.

flushed with the chance of knowing another...

A heart fed on dreamt possibilities, and the reasonless courage of what might be,

A heart waiting at some passed door to hand over two dimensions of hope to someone and have infinities of love returned

As if it were the key to a universe built just for two.

Now here it lies - its promises forgotten.

Its rash intent rinsed away in so much rain, or tears, or empty beers and piss.

Old.

Faded.

Fragile.

Failed.

the discarded victim of a thousand nonchalant indignities.

I stooped, and gathered it up with all the reverence one can muster in the heat of the phoenix sun,

thinking I would bring it home to some minor place of honor, because love should never end up in such a place... such a away.

But when I tried to fold it, the ancient paper crumbled in my gentle hands,

As if to say

You cannot save me from fate, foolish bard... I know my place.