I saw the picture above in the newspaper. The young woman is Jennifer Sutton. After having her life saved by a heart transplant, she donated her heart (the old one, obviously) to the Wellcome Collection to try to help raise awareness about her disease (restrictive cardiomyopathy if you’re morbidly curious)
I found myself wondering how that would feel. So here’s the resulting lyric.
Heart in a jar…
Went right out to the edge
’til I looked down at the stars
but they pulled me back again
and they put my heart in a jar
This phantom in my chest
measures out seconds that aren’t mine
this heart is quiet, still
resting peacefully, perfectly in time
Staring through the bottle
at the tangled knot of flesh
that kept me anchored to this world
that animated every breath.
This second chance – to dance in bliss
as lovers’ lips, the raindrops kiss
a snatch of song; the heart insists –
a second longer, the beat persists
Beaten insensate, like warrior drums
worn on the sleeve, carried to ignominy
ignored, misused, battered, abused,
surviving still, the poet’s muse,
tender beats such soft tattoos
the comforts of the live embrace,
fill up this empty, aching space
my heart, locked in its jar,
feels so much more,
feels so much…
Postscript…
Many months after this post was written, we heard from Jennifer, who’d had the song brought to her attention by a friend of a friend. We were thrilled to hear that it had been well received! It’s a really rewarding feeling to find out that something into which we poured a great deal of love had some positive impact.