Lay My Heart Down

 Lay my heart down

Spread upon glossy glass, the rippling fabric of a gown

Upheld strong by two hand tower rising up amongst the town

Lay my heart down

On a stone cellar floor, or scarlet plague

Drenched in blood and gone astray 

Lay my heart down where you lay

Promise it not be thrown away

Lay my heart down

On emerald isle where tulips bloom

and spirits rise from stoney tombs

Where dreadful silence fills a room

And lust combusts like suns at noon

Lay down my heart..

Where poets paint and purchase art

where seafarers swear, explore, and chart

beneath the sands of time that sifts

within a chizzled hieroglyph 

lay down my heart ..

where there be any trace of love

where couples meet and merge as one

where orphans hunger from inside

and sleep outdoors all through July

lay down my heart..

Atop the snowy mountain bluffs 

Where lies contrived are sought enough

Upon the wooly mammoths tusks

Where pride and shame reclaim the dusk

lay down my heart..

Beside a weak impoverished chest

where demons snarl and deny depth

inside newly discovered crests

sentenced to stain from ciggeretes

lay down this heart..

A piece of all, and all a piece

the troubled wars among the East

the sirens in the West that shriek

may it know all, itself retrieved

lay down my heart..

lay down my heart, below the skull

in wonder, emptied, ever full

let it know its pure creation 

in deaths divine retaliation 

take this heart of string and wire

and lay it gently in the fire

allow its dross to smelt a gold

in faith and truth, through time and world

let all that it has known and seen

glisten, like sun-kissed nectarine

its fire calmed by winds of summer

throughout creation, safe and harbored

this heart that has endured this life

and faced anguish of shell and knife 

lay it upon a parcel scroll

expose its bounty to the whole

lay down my heart.