Heart of Concrete, Heart of Flesh
©February 5th, 2018
By Vijaya Sundaram
He came from afar to alight near her
The one who had called to him,
Silently, with her wings spread wide,
Quietly, with her head raised high
Softly, with her beak to the wind.
He came with his hopes and his dreams of love
To the one who had called to him.
A yearning that he could not name
Would fill his frame, from feet to head
And grow a love that would leave him spent.
Year after year, he would build her a nest
And refuse to look at the birds
Who resembled her and him
Who surrounded them, so many
That he thought he could hear them all.
But alas, she was mute, and so were they,
But he loved her with a true heart
He gave her all the things he had
And what he gave, she didn’t take.
She stood, unmoved, uncaring, still.
For she was stone, and he was flesh,
And stone and flesh will never meet
He’d served with love, he’d served her well
But his love was not fulfilled.
More birds came ashore to greet him
Like him, they were flesh and blood,
But he knew not, and he cared not
For his heart was hers from the start.
He served and waited without hope,
And he stayed by her side until
His poor heart cracked within his chest
His feathers went still and limp.
You can break your beak against a stone
You can break your bones against concrete
You can hope and mourn, and waste away
While your love stands still, unmoved and cold.
Hard it can be, in a heartless world,
To move with love and with warmth
To give and give, without a hope
Of getting what we dearly want.
Beware of love, for it is blind
With eyes wide open, you will yearn
For something that can never be
And It can lead you to your death.
And yet, and yet, there is, in this,
A beauty born of loving much.
For it’s love that truly matters,
Not the object of one’s love.
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(Arrgh! I got sentimental. Still, I had to bang out a poem about that Australasian gannet bird, Nigel, and his stone-cold love, before conking myself on the head, and pushing off to the land of Nod. I was moved by this bird, and his hopeless passion.)
Here’s another link I found about it today: