Inquiry #3

The way of the heart
is that it shifts— speaks in lace,
in blood red phrases:

holocausts, amphetamines,
Arctic glaciers.

The way of the heart
is to cry out

broadcast, abhor —
Srebrenica and Katrina —

our Iraqi war —
then beat by beat

ignore, ignore, ignore.

The selfish heart —
that hypocritical tart

hides her actions
and erasures

like the infant
she forsook at birth

which one day returns —
face shorn, heart

spectral, demanding
reparations:

a pound of flesh —
extracted, salted, cured —

our failures historical
our heartlessness beyond words.

Copyright © 2007 Susan Rich All rights reserved
from Green Mountains Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission