A Poem: Heart Strings

When you wear your heart on your sleeve
you are likely to leave it places.
It will beat and mark every territory as its own.
When you carry your heart in your eyes,
or at the tip of your nerve endings,
it will feel like a fragile thing
buffeted by all the senses.
But it is not so soft,
that you can pick it up from anywhere
it seeks to plant itself.
Brush it off,
set it again upon your back,
your front.
Know its resilience.
How it is always looking ahead,
whilst still reminding us
in the way it grasps and cleaves,
that nowhere is without a pulse,
a life force ever pregnant with meanings.
God and the ancestors live everywhere
and everywhere is home.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
July 2021