The Not So Fragile Heart

The tear that welled into the right eye was just the beginning of the storm. As it overflowed the margins of the eyelid and slid gently down the curve of cheek, others were gathering; spontaneous mass too damp to combust but no less a conflagration. An explosion of feeling and emotion taken by the body and translated into concrete terms. Breath heaved into tremulous lungs no longer good at extracting oxygen and shuttling it into the blood. A bellows working overtime. Tiny hairs along the skin erected, throwback to the time when body pelt would raise to let the watchers know stay back, be warned, all is not well! And everywhere the muscles tighten and release, flesh ripples down the flanks, quick quiver held in check gathering itself for action do we fight or do we go?

And underneath it all, the engine pulses. Deep clench, light flutter pushing all the body's tides through narrow conduits that rush them on their way, tearing at the passageways made weak by time, turning switches on and off as needed, triggering adrenals, hormones marching to their embedded drumbeat, now strong, now gentle, pouring forth to cluster on the battlements if needed. Heartbeats echo on the narrow bars of bone confining its extravagant surge of action and reaction, throb in the hollow beneath the larynx that moans and hisses as the lips pull back from teeth admitting a fast indrawn breath; instinctive grimace in the face of threat, of pain. Then will exerts its pull and tears drain back unshed, lips compress, teeth pressing on the inner surface, biting down to hold the fort together no shriek of pain escaping.

I just stubbed my toe.