BEYOND THE PHILOLOGY OF THE HEART

An unsure heart

will circulate

its own myths,

histories,

and will labor

to tell them

with words

like ischemia

or angina.

But the muscle itself,

the myocardium,

is not a philologist

and so knows only

the one story,

the one word:

oxygen.

And it is for this

that it lives – and loves.