Be Brave

and write it!

I’m a little leery to share this poem, because it is not a “beautiful” poem and I probably already lost all the cat lovers in the last post. Still, I was challenged by Off Ramp to Brave Spaces to write using a line from their last post (or maybe it was supposed to be from Untamed Eulogy). So, here is my poem inspired by the phrase “the little beating heart” in honor of my very long, very uncomfortable day.

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

The Eviction Notice
by Laura L. Hansen

Choking on the little beating heart
of my dinner, I found I couldn't even
feed it a sip of water, every well-chewed bit
sitting like a log jam in my throat,
wriggling like a mouse trying to get out.
All night it fitted and squirmed.
Morning came and I still held
its dying form, hot and sweaty,
between my lung and my heart.
I pressed a hand to it - massaged,
but the day carried on with it lodged there,
rasping and dehydrated, turning
to acid. Finally, after twice
leaving a meeting, I was home
and hungry and desperate to swallow
away the guilt of my dinner,
the acid-inducing burden
of lettuce and ranch dressing,
of chopped apple and croutons,
and of that little barely pink morsel
of leftover pork chop. I drank
the pink potion, waited - worried,
then with an inaudible flush
it was gone. Still, my body remembers
the little invader, how it scrabbled about
and settled in like a squatter for the day.

Welp. That is Laura’s Night Stack. With that I will be swilling a bit more Gaviscon (in the poem it was Pepto) and hoping for a much better night’s sleep and, maybe a nice tender unobtrusive muffin in the morning.