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you have heard them i know
the love poems
citing the frailty of the human heart
featuring crinkled crumpled tinfoil hearts
left in the sun saran wrap hearts
tupperware hearts with missing lids

all the fragile itty bitty baby biscuit hearts
are enough to make you doubt the existence of
    modern science, medicine

have you seen the heart?
i’ve been to the heart
its muscular chambers are tougher than a jock sock
    left in a high school gym locker over summer
    break
knives bounce right off of it, and if scalpels hit
it can bear more stitches than the human head
while continuing to pound out its einz-vi-drie,
einz-vie-drie
hup-two-three such and punch in our chests
the heart’s a fighter, not a lover
brutal as a battle front
it beats our blood

the true seat of emotion is the liver
arched tremendous, sopping red in our guts

fragile as a cream puff
softer than a lamb’s bleat

with the consistency of toilet tissue paper
that we wad up and drench in alcohol
when we no longer want to feel

my liver broke today
in the way they’re wont to do
an orchestra of teflon pans dropped from the top
    drawer
a cymbal crash and the warm sound thud
of that huge bag of purifying blood
hitting the pavement

oh liver, in your condition
i should put you in a plastic bucket and hope to sell
    you at the grocery store
i could frighten children and lovers alike
eat your liver!
out
wear your liver on your sleeve
giant cow-fat cross sections of liver on your sleeve
refuse to speak because your liver’s in your throat
see liver
glisten
in your eyes when you’re excited
and when love has ended
there is no broken heart here
we are all dying of cirrhosis

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Noel Franklin is a Seattle-based writer and artist.  She's participated in the Seattle National Poetry Slam team, Jack Straw Writers Program and received a Seattle Arts Commission grant for poetry.  Her work has appeared in Raven Chronicles, Rain City Review, Chrysanthemum and the Poetry Nation anthology.  She also co-founded the Seattle Poetry Festival.