So much more than flesh and tissue, 
the human heart, of intricate design, responsible naturally 
for each second time allows. A complicated array of vessels 
and ventricles of immodest proportion, 
its importance need not be reinforced. A vital organ. 
A muscle; strong, steady. Purposeful. With the lungs 
it functions, beneath ribs woven 
to shield us from life’s catastrophes. If we should say 
the heart is more important than the brain, we would 
then again, have to think of how it functions, 
or when it faults. 
   Humans are complicated, from the start. 
   Do we lead with our head, or follow the heart? 
Secure in its biological habitat.    Protected.    And we, 
as we grow, endeavor to understand emotions, and feelings, 
and complications, as blood rushes through our veins, 
as we learn to live, or love, in pain. 
      Heartbeat.      Heart break.      Heart ache. 
Trusting less in the function, less of the body, 
we build walls, a facade, to hide behind. 
Having lost before, or even since then,
we protect our self. 
    So much more than function or folly, 
a human’s heart; the complicated array of flesh and veins, 
of sordid pasts and rumpled pain. Strength we can find, 
a purpose of which to remind. 
If the heart is more important than the brain, 
we shall learn to try, and will love again.

© 2018 j.g. lewis