May’s Heart – A Poem

May’s Heart

There was a hole in May’s heart. A small tear of
no significance
except for that the fact she felt the movement of bodies
shuffling through
dragging themselves with their slick bloody limbs
pressing into her.
Their hands clenching and feet kicking to get
past
the muscle.

She thought it best to seek counsel for this situation.

And by the advice of her father who saw May
as a bit of an eccentric
she went to the doctor.
A Dr. Muirstein
of Stillwater Lane who had an office
in Pacific Beach
with luxurious leather seats in the waiting room.
He told her that her heart suffered
only from its own delusions
but that her breasts may need to be examined.

May kindly declined and while checking out
and paying for the service
told the nurse
she better watch her ass.

With May’s mother being the religious sort
she thought to stop at the church
on her way home
to see the priest
who said she could be possessed
but that he would require the full supremacy
of the secret authority
contained within the holy confessional
to make a full diagnosis.

The ramifications of such a maneuver made May
tremble
and so she blessed the priest in the church gardens
and forgave him of the sins
she carried.

The hole over time grew larger
as did the bodies that it birthed
until overcrowded in her small frame three of them
began to slither
pull
push
and squirm
through openings in her skin
and into the world.
They were grotesque and tiny
blind and clumsy
but May loved them passionately
finding them beautiful
and allowed no harm to them.

May gave them names
and in the free reign she provided them over her one
room
apartment
they learned to read and cook
and dance and sing.
They would watch the courtyard outside the window
where the slumbering people
moved through life.

The three loved May
and guarded her voraciously
during walks
or while she slept
or when she cried or laughed or read to them from
her books and magazines.

They never did grow over two feet high
but did become exceedingly brilliant
in thought
and form
until they faded
becoming crystalline
filled with radiant hues
and wisdom.

Yet one day when May came home from work she found them gone.
The sliding glass door to the patio lay open.
As she closed the door
she noticed the hole in her heart was healed.
The tear was shut
and she knew that no one and nothing
would issue through it
any more.