The Heart

Nákem means heart, means not kidney 
or liver or spleen, not dark clotted blood 
combed through with aromatics and spice. 
Nákem means the soft muscle in your chest 
that's finally learned to keep its chambers open
so returning birds might find their way in at dusk,
and small cares fold themselves into drawers.
When you were young, you thought the heart was
weaker than any wind which slashed through 
bamboo groves, that surely it could not withstand  
the onslaughts of water breaching the dams. 
The heart is as large or small  as a handful of rock, 
unmoveable as ice, a soldier in the lonely wilderness 
until it understands how to be true to its own nature.