Fragile: Handle with Care

by Myra Chappius

Hearts aren’t built with holes

They are woven tight — stacked

Like a Jenga tower

Pieces are plucked away

By circumstance, action, inaction

Piled back on top

The base becoming more precarious with each move

We teeter

Swaying, second by second

Trying to steady ourselves

Avoiding a fatal pull

The one segment that will cause all the rest to crash

The anxiety, the fear

Of finding it all — suddenly — fallen

The insufficient living we do

It may take time

A careful assembling — pieces placed with shaking hands and apprehension

The sneaky, creeping dance of restraint

But — like the tower — a heart can be reconstructed

Knitted together once more — spaces filled by lessons learned

Made whole again