Love’s Ordeal by Howie Good

The doctor who examined you compared the heart to a house with four doors. In your case,
one of the doors is stuck, and there are dead plants on the windowsill. My first thought when
you told me wasn’t for you but myself. I thought of how lost I would be if something were to
happen to you, how incapable of coping. Then the thought broke apart, and the sky turned
stormy, and we were like the rebels and criminals the ancient Romans nailed to large wooden crosses and smugly left to hang.

Howie Good’s newest poetry collection, Heart-Shaped Hole, which also includes examples of his handmade collages, is available from Laughing Ronin Press.