NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: Day 7

The Stone-Heart Girl

Inspired by Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.

He called her names
to paint her into boxes
he could understand.
But what she could not
understand was why
he couldn’t love her
for her and not another
or a figment of his
imagination.
She imagined, if he really
loved her, it would taste
familiar but there was
no taste for home to
the stone heart girl.

He kept her secret
as if ashamed of her
ivory. Grabbed a mallet
to chip away at her
best intentions. Believed
he knew better because
he convinced himself
he was, as men do
when they don’t know
the whole story. No
way of knowing
the stone heart girl. 

When everything burnt down
she could finally roam free
the rubble, the remnants, of 
the stone heart girl.