To Save a Heart

A pale hand reaches out,
feeding him a cup of hope,
a sip of light
and a pinch of magic.

Fingers soothing.
A healing touch
to save a heavy heart.

Her eyes deep,
longing to raise a boy out of darkness.

Drained of all his tears,
no emotion left to hurt,
he stomps through rainy days alone.
Does anyone even know he's gone?

Why did you have me?
he asks, when he finally reaches his mother's doorstep.
To win the heart of the man I loved, she responds,
but he wouldn't have me.

No sweet kiss on his forehead,
no tender caresses to warm him.

Just a cold, hard door
slammed against his once hopeful heart.

Traveling the world on his own,
a boy born out of madness.
Each step crushing the concrete,
his fury screaming through every crevice and crack
until his whole life crumbles beneath him.

With nothing to hold him up,
he is the one who has to pick up
all the pieces of earth around him.
-one rock at a time,
from a rows of barrels in front of him.

One rock for the shirt on his back,
three for an education,
and five for a home-cooked meal.

Home- is where there is no heart
Home- where his is the last mouth to be fed,
and still he sits alone at the dinner table.
Home- where a young boy
is tucked into sheets of shivers
and sleeps without knowing who he belongs to.
He dreams of one boulder at a time
wearing him down,
until his childhood wings disintegrate
into the clouds forever.

She looks down upon him,
as she reaches out a slender hand
to soften his hardened heart,
with a cup of hope
a sip of light
and a pinch of magic. ©