Art Imitates Life Imitates Art

Toxic Schizophrenia by Tim Noble and Sue Webster,
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.


While I like my man to know his Keats from Browning from Frost from Dickinson, I also agree with Alice Walker and this beautiful poem:

Never Offer Your Heart to Someone Who Eats Hearts
by Alice Walker

Never offer your heart
to someone who eats heart
who finds heartmeat
delicious
but not rare
who sucks the juices
drop by drop
and bloody-chinned
grins
like a God.

Never offer your heart
to a heart gravy lover
Your stewed, overseasoned
heart consumed
he will sop up your grief
with bread
and send it shuttling
from side to side
in his mouth
like bubblegum.

If you find yourself
in love with a person
who eats hearts
these things
you must do:

Freeze your heart
immediately.
Let him - next time
he examines your chest -
find your heart cold
flinty and unappetizing.

Refrain from kissing
lest he in revenge
dampen the spark
in your soul.

Now,
sail away to Africa
where holy women
await you
on the shore -
long having practiced the art
of replacing hearts
with God
and Song.


Like I am fond of saying to my close friends: "all men are capable of being jerks or sometimes assholes," but the one who can appreciate poetry (definitely not the cherry-decaffed-frappuccino-sipping-in-Starbucks kind of guy) is for keep!