scars in the heart

there are 10 scars in the human heart
not a word of thou-shalt-not's etched like
water-fluted canyons in your desert wilderness,
your own mirage thirsting for words that carve
forgiveness deep into your bones with a burning stick
from hell, sweating blood from
your mother's birth canal

but your hands are trembling with memories
as you grope along
the walls, so thin you could see the tiny fingers of your birth
and you weep

you have forgotten the most intimate dance,
the one of your forever longing,
the one and only dance you have ever danced with your shadow,
and so you project the sins of
your missed intimacy into the world and you walk in the valley
of every woman's love
so deeply in love
your breath leaves momentarily and enters a newborn's
cry of life

there are ten scars in the human heart and the soul
weighs less than all the burdens you carry.

A raven cries.


~A