Sally Bliumis-Dunn's poems have appeared in Paris Review, Plume, Prairie Schooner, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-day, and The Writer's Almanac. She lives with her husband John in Harpswell.
She says, “I wrote "Heart" on the first Valentine's Day after my divorce. I was bitter and the simple little red hearts seemed to relate very little to what I was then feeling. Fortunately, my life has become deeply fulfilling again.”
Heart
She has painted her lips
hibiscus pink,
The upper lip dips
perfectly in the center
like a Valentine heart.
It makes sense to me—
that the lips,
the open
ah of the mouth
is shaped more like a heart
than the actual human heart.
I remember the first time I saw it—
veined and shiny
as the ooze of a snail—
if this were what
we had been taught to draw
how differently we might have
learned to love.
From Talking Underwater (Wind Publication, 2007).
Used with the author’s permission.