Helium Hearts

Helium Hearts
 
Breathing in
shallow, empty gasps,
must be so appealing to you
 
Holding a pin inches
from you heart must mean
something to you in the most
intimate way
because you know
how dark this home is
 
You know how dangerous
this game can be
you've been here before.
 
You know how the pieces
fit together, and how the
west divides itself.
 
Look at you,
standing in the rain,
drenched in purple from head
to toe, shivering so violently
it becomes a dance, a
strange tribal extascy
that only you know the
words
to
Look at you
beat your heart like
a snare drum,
look at you
pluck at your heartstrings
like a single rose
in a sea of concrete.
 
Look at your eyes sagging
and your teeth exploding,
watch as your head caves in
and falls to rest on your
ballooned heart.
 
Do you remember?
 
Do you remember the tidal
wave of snow
melting around you?  Do you
remember clinging to the
ceiling like a spider web
and collecting dust on your
eyelids?
Do you remember
letting your heart
fill up
with helium and
carbon manoxide,
then laughing til it killed you?
 
Do you remember your
helium heart rising
into the white
snow tipped
atmosphere
until it finally touched the
sun
and disappeared?

Do you remember?
Look at you.
 
You smile like the earth stands still.
You smile like a thousand miles
is just beyond the next rise.
You smile like everything will
be fine.
You smile like your helium heart
is fine.
 
I want to scream,
I want to yell,
I want to tear down the walls
on this house of cards and
rip through your ribs and
write on the walls of your lungs:
 
Remember to breathe, and remember
to speak, because you'll be lost for
words when love takes your breath
away.
 
Look at you,
holding a purple heart in your hands.
So brittle
so fragile.
Still drowning in a pool of
Amber.
And maybe blue.
Where's your smile now?
Can you smell the
carbon
manoxide?
Can you sense any trace of helium
at all?
 
You're breathing in
shallow, empty gasps,
your pounding on this
broken heart
like a snare drum
locked in a
wordless dance
with a ballooned mind
and a caved in heart.
 
Do you remember what
that's like?
 
You pull your heart
from your pocket -
a grey, patchwork heart
that beats in irregular beats
while floundering limply in your palm.
So delicate,
a puppy eyed heart filled with
only oxegyn and gauze.
 
You bring your hands together,
slowly at first,
and watch as they start to fill,
start to beat faster
matching the other's pace, and
start to shine brighter than the
stars above you.  You smile,
watching a tribal dance
of helium and
carbon
manoxide.
You see the
grey heart
rip the gauze from its arteries
and stand up on end,
wounds and tears
in its skin are left
untreated,
exposed and
under stress
but ultimately ignored.
And you see the purple heart
life its head slightly,
pick itself up out of the pool of blood
and stare longingly at the grey,
ever hopeful, but ever guarded.
 
Do you not remember?
Do you
not remember?
 
You smile like everything will
be fine.
You smile like
you're lost for words
because love took your breath away.
 
And I start to remember
what that's like.
 
I start to dream of
flying through the snow tipped
atmosphere, letting my cream colored
heart fill with helium and pull
me to the stars, where I could
touch the face of suns
without being
burned.
 
I look down at my lungs
and see etched there:
 
Remember to waste your breath
and lose your words,
because love takes your
mind away.
 
Looking back,
I don't see two broken hearts
I see two hopeful ones
two hearts so willing to be filled again
they ignore the danger
completely
they seem to dive headfirst
into a pool of blood and never
look back
because they're not leaving
anything needed
behind.  With each other
they can finally breathe
and finally
smile like everything will
be fine.
 
They dance a wordless
tribal dance
to the beat of their matched
heartbeats
and smile.
And they'll
be fine.
 
My cream colored heart
is so far under wraps
alls the air's gone.
It's completely
caved in.
So I pull it from my
pocket and gently
remove the gauze
mummifying it.  It beats so faintly
with hardly a rythym at all.
But with each feeble beat
it slowly
breathes in the helium
and stretches its
hopeful gaze outward.
 
Look at you
in the mirror
 
You smile like the earth stands still
You smile like a thousand miles
is just beyond the next rise
You smile like everything will
be fine.
You smile like your helium heart
 
will be fine.

Reviews

[Brittany Zedalis]

Wow. This was definitely the longest poem I've ever read, and I am very impressed. Usually I try to pick out my favorite series of lines from poems posted on this site, but I can't pick any favorites here without just copying/pasting the entire poem. Really, really great work.

[Epicness]

Wow. This poem left me awestruck. It's so completely captivating and...amazing. I'm sorry, I can't really explain it well, but I really do think this poem is incredibly awesome!

[FateDictates]

My short attention span was held captive by this work that will haunt me by it sheer power of how it artfully engaged me. Not a line felt forced or not once did I want it too end and I need to go reread this work over
and over hoping that I'll begin to see how you got here at this stage. I'd love to spend a moment in your mind, only hoping it would lead me to write works like these.. a solemn curtsy bow to you indeed..

[(Super) Heroes Never Di..]

I see that this has so many views, but no ones reviewed it. I'm disappointed. This was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Your similies, your metaphors, everything is so..unique. I love that it doesn't make a lot of sense. It leaves a lot of room for imagination. Your word choice and the way you say things are so vivid, its captivating. You tell a whole story. I feel like there's symbolism in here, what with the use of colors and the placement of her heart in her pocket.
"I start to dream of
flying through the snow tipped
atmosphere, letting my cream colored
heart fill with helium and pull
me to the stars, where I could
touch the face of suns
without being
burned."
This stanza was amazing. This whole poem was breathtaking. Write on. You are an excellent poet. Brilliant job. Completely brilliant.