Denise Dumars

Heart Line 

 

When palmistry espies 

a curved heart line 

pointing to the index finger, 

it says romantic, psychic, easily hurt. 

So tell me something 

I don’t know. Like, 

what if little red flowers 

grew along the heart line 

and a big bad wolf came along 

and ate them 

and then Grandma arrived 

babuschka on her head 

machete in her hand 

and she chased the big bad wolf 

back into the forest 

said, “Whew, glad that’s over,” 

and those little flower stems left 

through the heart line 

that we recognize as scars— 

well, that’s the price 

of doing business 

if you’re romantic, psychic, 

easily hurt.