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.