Poetry: Robbed
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBy: Emily Fairchild
They unlatched your chest
looting vessels, bones and lungs but
didn’t see your heart;
you’d given it to me—
but willed it to him.
He retrieved it
when they left
the pine lid open
for a while he peered
at that unmoving heart of yours
truly. And he knew
he was stealing treasure
when he covered with his coat
your precious metal, numbed,
muffled in two oven mitts
wrapped in the scar-
let scarf you crocheted.
He locked it in another chest
at home where it should be,
or at least always was,
warming above the wood burning
fireplace in front of the rocking chair
you left and
he only leaves
to go chop more wood.