Would you dare

To let a heart

Start a fire

In another chamber?

tend a flame

that Never can be extinguished.

A fireman helpless against the high billows

Of the echoes of the heart:

the frequency of jealousy,

the slow pulse of longing,

the percussive crash of a coup de cœur,

and the shredding rips of heartbreak,

clots clogging the valves

deprived of breath,

the Heart must burn

the Heart must explode

shatter and shed her bones and skin!

Still,

a beat—

still beating

like a Phoenix’s first preen.