......Along the broken road

I wear my heart on my sleeve. It is right there, always catching on doorjambs, getting rained on. It gets hurt when the coffee spills, burning it to the center. Brush it off and get back to the business of living; my little battered heart in tow. Each time I change my shirt I peel off my heart and set it on my dresser. I see it still beating. Still pink with life. And I shower and put on my new sweater, my old heart.

It knows all of my secrets. Where the things that really hurt me hide. My little heart has known me my whole life. It watched me fall, and break. It's been there when I triumph, pumping my fist into the air with that whoosh of hope that shoots through a soul like firecrackers into a dark night.

It is the eternal optimist, this little heart of mine. Waking up every morning, renewed. Vowing to beat with the precision of a pendulum. Reminding me that we have only 2.5 billion beats together. Each one unique marking the passage of time. A beat I'll never get back. A second I can't rewind. A memory to be labeled, and filed away in the never-ending memory of my heart.

I wear my heart on my sleeve. For you to see. For me to know. That without love, there is no reason to breathe, to live, to be. I wear my heart on my sleeve because I will always offer it, no matter the risk, to someone I love.