I Carved Your Name In My Heart by Matthew Little

I Carved Your Name In My Heart

I carved your name in my heart
in a place that never heals

with a dull blade
carefully crafted from my own fingernail

in July wind with November detail
scattering its cold aesthetics

while standing at the rocks
of a broken monument we visited

just before that last closeness
could seal itself away

and before the distance came back
with a knife of its own dividing its lips.

Each letter I screamed for you
across empty fields and familiar lakes

hoping the state forests didn’t get in the way
but even if they did

even if I was just a faded scar in your fold
you never thought to pay attention to

there’s still the act.
It still meant something.

​

Matthew Little has been writing poetry since being introduced to the works of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton in 2012. He currently resides in his birth city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he spends his time working his day job, writing whenever he can muster the strength, and relaxing with his boyfriend and their two cats, Wicca and Wylie.

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