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Writer's pictureMarías at Sampaguitas

Poetry by Christina Ciufo

My Heart is Not a Toy 


Last winter, you eased and mended


my trepidation, broken heart, 


like a broken toy secluded 


on a shelf, draped with dust 


and spiderwebs, using 


screws, bolts, silver gears

and red paint from your gentle, 

chivalrous nature. 



Fingers press-


cracking, 

cracking, 


cracking the silver key-


listening my heart’s composition 


of our love. 


Gentle notes, like a dove’s wings, 

are light heartening and sweet. 


My heart’s palpitations are elegant


and captivating, like a ballerina 

dancing in a music box. 



Like a child, your eyes glimmer

with wonder, you smile lightens, 

and you laugh in amusement, hearing 


the sweet, palpitated notes of my song. 



When my song has ceased

and my ears wanted to listen 

to your heart’s composition 


of our love, it become hesitant  

to play your song. 


Fingers press-


cracking, 


cracking, 


cracking the silver key-


listening to your heart’s composition. 


Irregular, trepidation notes, like a cat’s whining, 

shivered down my back, making my heart 


still and filled with dread and uncertainty. 

Your heart’s grey composition-

cold and loveless, like stone. 



Fingers press-

cracking, 


cracking, 


cracking the silver key-


listening my heart’s composition 


of our make-believe love. 


My heart is not a toy- 


jest, infringement and disposal 


outside of the backyard. 


Its’ red coating becomes smudged in dirt

and becomes singed by sunlight, turning to black ash. 


It becomes scratched by squirrel claws. 

My heart becomes wrapped in a blanket of grass, 


dandelion weeds, insensitivity, and negligence. 



My heart is not a toy,

but a beautiful, delicate, and 


lively music box, performing 


a composition of love for 

not you, but for another man 


whose heart, like a music box, 


plays the same composition of love. 




Christina Ciufo is a passionate writer in poetry, short stories, flash fictions, fables, and completing her first novel. At a very young age, she always had a passion for writing stories and poems, specifically in fairytales, folklore, supernatural, and horror. After graduating Sacred Heart University with a BA in English, she continued to expand her writing abilities at Manhattanville College’s MFA Creative Writing Program and by May 2017, graduated with an MFA degree in Creative Writing. She completed Sacred Heart University's Education Program in December 2018 with a MAT in Teaching in both elementary and secondary. She is currently a Sunday School Teacher at St. Timothy's. She has appeared in Gravitas, Spillwords, Ovunque Siamo, Nymphs, Vamp Cat Magazine, Z Publishing Ohio, Nightingale & Sparrow, Truly Review, Mookychick, Door is a Jar Magazine, Bonnie's Crew, The Poetry Question, Twist in Time Magazine and Moonchild Magazine. https://twitter.com/ChristinaCiufo.

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