Why must a heart beat?

To keep a rhythmic marching time through life?
That common tempo keeping order in
our lawless world of hate and fear death.
Each heartbeat rallies troops across the globe,
a single feature shared in every life,
an army built on spirit, crying out
with every thump that we are one.

But what must hearts beat for?

To beat we mean to say 'to fight,'
and for what better cause to fight than love?
That painful pleasure wielding power both
to wreck lives and create them,
the strength it gives to those from whom it stole in battles past.
Enamoured and encased in armour,
steeled against the pain before
as drums beat faster
palms grow sweaty
the tempo quickens
gazes steady
you brace and lean in
gently
and surrender to his kiss
as he gives in to yours,
your battle won by both
as both your drums keep time in perfect synchrony
your breaths the perfect melody that keep
the perfect peace.

It's fool's day, and I'm thinking of the first heartbeat
my body has shuddered.
Skin smoothed from an embryo and into the form of a human being;
I was ushered into this world 12 and 8 years late
to two parents who rose their white flags by the time I was 10
and two siblings who had endured their fair share of the family fortune: traumatizing memories and the gene pool of mental illness.

I used to think it was a farse; this "life" thing.
I believed I was sent here by mistake,
as my mom often told me I was the "surprise" to her.
I came home on Father's Day and 17 years later, my father disappeared.
But I'll remember how he and my mom formulated the lives of 3 human beings, now on completely separate paths,
and how beautiful life became on our own accord.

We're often taught that blood is thicker than water,
and that your family are your first role models.
They teach you about the world before you get the chance to be taught by the world itself.
So what they're saying must be significant, right?

No matter the pain that has been struck on me
since that heartbeat,
I'll forgive.  It's the only way to make a second.
And as the blood trickles from my flesh,
on my dying bed, I'll reminince about my first breath, as I breathe my last.

I was warned
about the dangers of the night
About the strangers in the dark

But i was never warned
About the boy who break hearts
About the boy who has a heartbeat

And in a heartbeat, I was broken.

—ej

He sleeps so peacefully.

With my head on his chest I listen  to his heart beat.

My fingers running through his soft hair.

He seems so innocent and vulnerable.

I get so overwhelmed by emotions I can barely breathe.

This is what falling hard feels like.

I can feel you behind me,
Something breathing still
Against my heartbeat
And the very hairs on my back.

I meet you sometimes
Between the uncertainty
Of my solid skin, and yours
As firm as glass when you’re here.

I dare you to speak
And to break me open
Like a pomegranate spilling
It’s ruby seeds.

Instead, you, full of
Clementine melancholy,
Turn round the edges of the moon
And the sun rises.

So much comfort in the sound of a human heartbeat

My hands are shaking
Tears run down my cheeks
How my body is aching
Feeling so defeat

Hold me closer to you
I can feel your heartbeat
If only you knew
How this feeling could be so sweet

Be with me now
It's me who should be afraid
I'm sorry for being so loud
I never meant to push you away

Too anxious to tell you
what's going on
I can tell though
this is what you want

I'm not running away
forgive me now
I'm begging you to stay
The words just won't come out