what heartbreak feels like
a dense ball of wet metallic sand
dropped on your heart,
and you have to stand there
lifeless
as it seeps down
past every organ and bone.
you can feel it weigh down your breath.
it hangs on your lungs,
dripping like stalactites of sorrow in the caves of your soul.
your stomach becomes a pit.
you cannot eat.
all you desire is to have that weight removed.
the only way to get it out is to let it run its course:
don’t fight it
feel the pain
feel the weight
but keep going
the more you fight and try to remove the sand yourself,
the heavier it gets and the deeper the roots take.
eventually the sand recollects at the feet,
sooner than you think
once you accept it.
then someday,
a person will come along whose heart holds a magnet
that will draw out the lingering remnants
of that sorrowful sand.
-megan palmer
Megan Palmer is a senior Secondary Education and English Literature major with a minor in Philosophy at Saint Mary’s College. She is from Fort Wayne, Indiana. All her life, she has found magic powers in language. Megan plans to dedicate her life to inspiring other young minds with this magic in the high school English classroom!