Lub dup, lub dup, lub dup.
Muscles flex, soundwaves murmur
day by day, year after year.
You’ve never let me down.
Loves flowed freely in and out of
your crimson chambers as welcome guests.
When they departed there were hugs
and sometimes tears
but you never missed a beat.
You were ageless then.

There are fewer guests now.
Your walls have thinned,
your rhythms slowed, your beats labored.
Still, you cling to one lifelong love
with every tenuous sinew,
anxious that you might shut down
should that guest ever leave.

Be brave, old heart.
Let even your most precious love
come and go
as if you were still young
with nothing to fear,
as if the beat could never stop.