This Heart

This heart has many scars
So my love does not fear heartbreaks;
Not as much as it used to,
For it has been bruised and punctured,
Pierced and cracked into several pieces
And joined again with borrowed glue
Several times before, and has yet
Managed to trudge along with a smile.
This heart longs for you
Not with the confidence of youth,
But with the despondence of an aged wreck,
Clinging on to the last straw of hope
Offered to it by the kindness of your soul.

You undressed it with the calmness of your words
And then pierced it with a silence so shrill
That it cracked and shattered me
Into a million pieces that I am now
Picking up and framing into this heart again -
Not because I want to love again - maybe I can't,
But because I have to live on
With everything else around me,
Perfect as it is, though a bit like
A rooster without his crown.
And without you, this heart is all I have to live with.
I may have lost you,
but to have lost you like this is a shame,
Like a man who set out to conquer the world
With every weapon in his armour,
Only to return home embarrassed,
Defeated because his pants were torn.