My Heart

This red muscle
Big as a baseball
Pulsing, shaking
Pushing my blood

Blood returns
Yet leaks through a hole

I bleed when you are gone
My heart is missing
Part of its wall

The wall a defense
Against illness, sorrow, pain.
Intact my heart is strong
Its beat is audible
Its strength apparent.

You remove a brick when you go
The wall now porous, vulnerable.
Yet, as you return
The bleeding stops
The wall strong again
I no longer ache.