Blood Pressure

A. Jian

some days i only read science journals
to remind myself how both god and science
overestimate our durability
to remind myself to not do the same

here is what i learned:

they say a human heart
can beat for thirty minutes
outside the body
(indefinitely inside)

i laid in bed with my friend
and used the cracks in the ceiling
to map out the worlds missing inside us
with our fingers on the dark’s pulse point

she told me she was terrified
of hearing her heartbeat as she slipped into sleep
despite the reassurance she was still sentient
because she could sense her own machinery

that night i dreamt of my dead grandfather
prying open my ribs and cradling my heart
reading the veins like roadmaps to Some Place
before he placed it in his own empty chest

so assure me:

when i die they will hand my heart to someone
and i hope they have an easier time searching it
and learn how to listen to the silence around the
thump thump thump