Heartbreak

If you're lying in bed when it happens,
tiny invisible meathooks will reach up through the sheets,
ghost-like, and snag on heart, lungs, stomach and kidneys,
before pulling, gently, down.

If it's over the phone,
the no dial-tone will become the only rhythm you know.
You'll cling onto that for dear life and not hang up for about three minutes or so.
After all, you're barely breathing
and you know better than to check
for a pulse.

If you're standing up when it hits,
something heavy will form
between your last two lower ribs,
and grow fat.

If he's looking at you when he says it,
you won't feel it till much later,
when your phone beeps, and it's
someone else.
Every-time it happens, you will die a little.

But all things considered,

I think a heart truly breaks when,
if you hear someone new,
say,

I love you

it takes everything in your power

not to run away

screaming.