My heart flat-lined yesterday At approximately 5:28 in the afternoon The time doesn’t really matter Nor, I suppose Does the fact that I flat-lined yesterday (For; I’m still alive, though not living) But I thought it was an interesting fact And wondered if you, too, would be interested in knowing That I hit ground-level apathy For everything And for reasons beyond my control
Before you go thinking I’m depressed over you Or over something you did Be assured that my heart flat-lined for reasons beyond anyone’s control Except my own But it had to be done, I suppose In order to feel again
The funny thing is knowing That I could curl up on my bed and eat my favorite things While reading the letter you wrote to me a few years ago And fall in love with you again With the wonderful twists my stomach makes When you look at me a certain way Or when I think of your lips meeting mine
But the thing that scares me the most to think about Is that perhaps it wouldn’t be me falling in love with you again If I have to eat my favorite things to be feel a certain way
The thing about today is that I know God is up there somewhere But I can’t find it in me to care I’m neither sinning nor making good Not being tempted, not being persuaded I simply exist With no plans or future or decisions to make I suppose my struggle with my favorite foods is the one exception to what I’ve described
See, I know that God is up there somewhere But today it’s that I just cannot force myself to care There’s a wall between He and I somewhere in the lining of my stomach (And though I never meant for it to be there) It keeps Him from touching my soul 18 years of bad habits built up in my arteries Clogging my heart from anything but apathy But somewhere I found it in me to cry yesterday As it flat-lined at 5:28 God made me human With all these emotions That I have a natural right to feel
(I know now Why our Mother ate that which was forbidden)
So this apathy Is a test trial of us And though I still love you Today I don’t feel for you Or for anything Until tomorrow (I hope)