How Many Times Can The Heart Break?

It is hard to be human. When I was young I followed a flowery road A riot of colour and paint. I loved it deeply and well And then it was blocked, my Eden, my lovely future Its dreams, thrown out with the trash. That was a long bleeding, a running sore that leaves Its weeping scars to this very day It is hard to be human. Once I birthed a dead love. I blew and blew into its mouth I willed. I prayed it to live. It lay there all limp and white A guilt, a despair It is hard to be human When they dug my grandmother into the sod Like a rotten potato, it rained like Heaven was crying That first night without her, I lay for long in the dark Thinking of her in the cold, The warmth of her touch, a-missing. It is hard to be human To know when to close a door When to say ‘Enough' When others are in the room The word will damage. Consider the insect trapped beneath a stone Consider the fish, marooned in a shrinking pond How Many Times Can the Heart Break? It is hard to be human.