Tatem Herdina
Poetry Editor
The bleeding hearts in spring,
Pop up and show their love
Their petals wilt as their hearts freeze
As the air grows crisp and chilled
With the deadly beginning of purity
The frost takes hold, covering the chairs on the
porch,
A winter that breaks through your lungs and sucks
out the spring, summer, fall.
Peaceful emptiness that cracks through its icy
heart.
Leaving memories of laughter,
With sunshine on my skin, and popsicles on my
tongue,
Till a blizzard comes to wipe them away and cover
them in frost.
With pastries in coffee houses, chalk against a
window board,
Advertising tree decorations for sale,
The steady hand of piano as I walk through an
airport…
Memories and winters that say ‘welcome home’
With the plane at the same gate,
But it is different, with no bleeding hearts now
Only the snow
In the home that is not home, but it must be home.
Because there is the smile I share with my father,
And the house is the same, just painted a different
color
There is the buzzing that comes with the parties,
the frenzy of noise
Where I run outside with my jacket as the anxiety tells me
to flee
It does not change, so it must be home;
I run back inside
In the summer to the bleeding hearts and
watermelon cubes
In winter to ornaments and the smell of warmth
(You know that smell, the one that brings peace when it
cannot be found,
Joy in the melancholy,
And views the world through rose-colored glasses.)
I tint my world with the bleeding hearts all year round.