ANIMALS - a daily series of poems with illustrations by @bennettitalia
DOGHEART
Dogheart suffers from too much love.
Not outside of him, but all around his insides.
He wears his heart on his exposed tongue.
“Keep it down”, people tell him, “keep it hidden”. But dogheart is too obvious.
You can hear him breathing, loud, strong strokes that fill the whole room.
You can hear his heart beating, bleeding love all over the rug.
Your own heart melts open
to look at his eyes,
or else it slams shut with a bang and a blow to the head,
or two for good measure.
He takes it and stares at you. His eyes are always filled with tears anyway.
It doesn’t mean much.
Animals don't feel things the way we do. They’re like little kids.
They will repress anything for you, in order to keep loving you.
So full of expectation, of excitement, possibility.
You can break them with heartlessness.
It can be a sad spectacle to watch children get older, maybe six, maybe eighteen, maybe three seconds and counting: watch the expectation fade in their eyes, watch them begin to know not to expect love.
A dog never grows up like that.
He sits in your living room, rocking the entire house back and forth with the beat of his heart:
you, you, you, you, you.
©2018 Bennett Italia
These poems are adapted from an art book I made awhile back. Check out the rest of the series so far, if you like:
©2018 Bennett Italia
done
Please reply to this comment if you accept or decline.
Thank you @sunravelme! Accept of course ;)
The ending is everything - everything! I like the comparison between the dog and little kids, kids who know no better, innocent. As they grow up, their expectation fades. I never owned a dog, but I would probably disagree with the 'content', dogs can learn to avoid pain. Maybe they are too forgiving, that even though they know you hurt them, they know that you also was kind and gave them love. It could be that is what dogheart is, not giving up on you even when they have seen your worst.
Thank you @poetrybyjeremy! I appreciate the thoughtful comments.
Yes, it's more metaphorical than actual... not meant to be an accurate description of the nature of canines, more using their (anthropomorphized) characteristics as a springboard.
I agree with your last sentence, except I might add: to a fault.
Following you :)
Interesting. From my perspective of artist, I really like it when you find strange ways of proyecting. I'm refering to the curious chooses you can do, as artist, to express through your creative genius or sensibility, anyways. I can simultaneously laugh and feel moved by this poem. It's cool. That's what art is supposed to be for. Fun.
Yes, I love the playfulness of art too. You can do it any number of ways, but the way that charms you the most is often the coolest. Thanks for the awesome comments! Following you:)
Congratulations. This post is featured in this week's Muxxybot Poetry Curation Post.https://steemit.com/curation/@muxxybot/muxxybot-poetry-curation-14
Thank you! ❤
I'm not sure exactly what this is, is there anything else I need to do for it? Share the curation post?
Ooohhh... cool, I see it now! Thanks, how exciting :) I can't wait to read the other selections!
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