Poem: Heartless Is…

Heartlessness revisits in multiple ways, even after heartbreaks.

Poem: Heartless is…

(1)

Heartless… is Curious.
‘How would it be to be a man
Who, after all these years
Loves me so heartfully.’

Warmth of the palms.
The eyes tell a different story.
Curiosity.-
Of what would have been.
Then…
I did not knock on the door.
Now…
My heart does not have a door.
You walked in, curious

The answer:
It would have been love then,
Love now, and love, forever.

Curiosity found its answer -
A sigh.
Then, she was gone.
My heart, still open, without a door.

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(2)

Heartless is…

Empathetic.
The heart is an insatiable vessel of love.
Try taking one pinch.
One fistful.
One with both hands.
Still, the vessel brims —
With insatiable love

Empathy awakens life.
An inert heart that beats only to exist.
A ray of sunshine.
A green sapling germinates in the deadwood.

Try this:
The green sapling reaches for the sky
As if to touch the sunshine.
Then…
There is not a drop of water.
Empathy, the wet emotion
Dries up like a drought.

I am —
A green sapling that tried to grow.
Like the love born out of empathy.
Then…
The drought of silence and dryness.
Being deaf would be better —
For you can’t hear silence.

The green sapling folds —
Dry, withered foliage remains.

Heartless —
Curiosity and Empathy
A mirage of love
That singed my heart.

Ashes to Ashes,
Dust to Dust.
I shall remain,
Heartless but alive.

~Ashok Subramanian © 2025