Open-Hearted Surgery
This was not an elective procedure.
Growing up, I collected rocks. Wet with color,
my toes buried in the sticky clay of this water.
the Red River ran strong and turbulent,
held between
the sweaty arms of Texas
and the fierce solitude of Oklahoma.
I now sit within the quiet
teachings of the Earth,
mirrored in her vessels
as in,
her shifting rivers.
I was once told by a teacher
the heart’s vascular system
could be wrapped around the Earth’s circumference
more than two and a half times.
As I hold
this incomprehensible knowledge,
I turn inward.
The clean pain I feel
is also
the unexplainable strength
of a heart still beating,
regardless of circumstance.