Open Heart Surgery

He never told me how he related to the character who died from a betrayal.
The depression that followed sucked the air right out of the room
and left me outside gasping for breath.
Thinking back, he was never mine so much as I was his,
although I didn't know that at the time.
His heart had been broken and repaired many times before.
Handled carelessly.
Now, a sclerotic marble almost incapable of feeling anything at all.
Everyone starts out with a clean slate and open chest.
Daring the world to happen to them.
I never met a broken heart I didn't wish to glue back together with love.
But some vases aren't meant to go back together again
and some people don't want to be saved.