The Heart

For the heart it was a chance.
It throbbed with interest
strong-willed it waited
it still had so much punch.

The whole world watched, read,
saw photos of white coats,
thought of the man, how
he, perhaps, could carry on.

Everyone's dream. The heart
pumped as staunchly as it could
pumped as it always
did, always had done.

It was an exact match. Everything
was there and matched exactly.
But there was something that
did not take part, did not join

in welcoming the heart.
No-one knew what it was.
Everyone's fear: that it
would not take. It did not take.

Everyone thought of the man,
no-one thought of the heart,
how it, still so vital even
in these foreign ribs, got jammed.

Copyright © 2002 Judith Herzberg All rights reserved
from In a Different Light: Fourteen contemporary Dutch-language poets
Rob Schouten and Robert Minhinnick, editors
Seren Books / Dufour Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission