How Does It Sound When A Heart Breaks? Poem by Lily Ives

How does it sound when a heart breaks?
Does it bang like the sudden blast
of a forgotten land mine
ripping the flesh of an unfortunate animal?
Does it yowl like the piercing
cry of a wife who just witnessed
the last breath of her husband?
Does it roar like a raging inferno
engulfing the forest ablaze
on a hot summer day?
Does it pop like excited corn kernels
sprouting in a hot paper bag?
Or does it sound more like the
soft thud of a discarded book?
Surely, when a heart breaks,
it makes a sound!
Did you hear a series of ruptures
splitting my heart open
with each breath you took
between your thoughtless words?
Did you hear the sound of soft
bloodied tissue escaping into the dark
recesses of my arteries?
I may have sat silently as your gentle,
distant gaze washed over me,
and your lips shrouded me in smog;
but I swear, it was your voice
that muffled the slow, rhythmic
eruptions beneath my bosom.