My heart beat exactly twice between
“I love you”
and
“But...”

Another three beats reverberated
loudly in my ears, between
“I didn’t mean for this to happen”
and
“But it did”

I’d never counted my heartbeats
during happy times
Love and laughter were
evidence enough
that I was living
But now that our love’s destroyed
Along with my world,
The time between heartbeats seems neverending

Now I find myself angry with
my own beating heart
How can it...how dare it...
still go on?
And like pulling petals off a flower - in a
twisted version of that old game of
"he-loves-me, or not"
Every other heartbeat now whispers
"I-do"
and
"I-don't"

© Shari64A