American Life in Poetry

In this endearing short poem by Californian Trish Dugger, we can imagine “what if?” What if we had been given “a baker’s dozen of hearts?” I imagine many more and various love poems would be written.

Here Dugger, Poet Laureate of the City of Encinitas, makes fine use of the one patched but good heart she has.

Spare Parts

We barge out of the womb

with two of them: eyes, ears,

arms, hands, legs, feet.

Only one heart. Not a good

plan. God should know we

need at least a dozen,

a baker’s dozen of hearts.

They break like Easter eggs

hidden in the grass,

stepped on and smashed.

My own heart is patched,

bandaged, taped, barely

the same shape it once was

when it beat fast for you.