heart (w)rap
i strap my heart
tightly
bind it strong
tough
was how i presented it to you
how you questioned me
on what was in this strange parcel
first tentatively
and then held it in your hands
and feeling the warmth
and faint beat
you guessed
and since
have tugged at the string
i so carefully bound
in protection
how you teased open
layer after layer
unravelled it all
until it lay open before you
how you were repulsed
when you saw
the pale blood drained flesh
i too drew back
hardly recognising the half healed mass
before us
disgusted by the scars
you did not ask
in what battle they were won
but fled
“the faint hearted”
i whispered to myself
“won’t inherit”
and began again
to bind.
The Fire People: A Collection of Contemporary Black British Poets, ed. by Lemn Sissay (Edinburgh: Paperback Press, 1998), 59-60.
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