NOT / Heart-related


I'm smiling out loud to myself and why not?
The sun is still shining (the air smells of spring)
I should be able to finish my book
And the pain in my shoulder? —it's
NOT /
Heart-related

I may be a bit off my prose, as they say
I am flush but not ready to rhyme
I've had a rough month full of morbid surmise
And my arm hurts like hell but it's
NOT /
Heart-related

It's been a good time for depression and dread
And things haven't clicked for a while
In the midst of the day I forget who I am—
My words turn to mush in my head! —
But I've been to the doc, and he says that it's
NOT /
Heart-related

On St. Valentine's Day, I adjourn to the mall
Seeking hard-candy sweets and bon mots
Then I pick up a cookie at Lin's Chinese Grill
Bon-temps-ting both fortune and fate
But no matter how many fried foods I've consumed, it's
NOT /
Heart-related

So I'm smiling out loud to myself and why not?
"My Girl" - "I Luv You" - "Crush on!"
"You will receive a (long overdue) break!"
For no matter how awful the pain, IT IS
(Aunty-emphatically, fat-categorically)
NOT /
Heart-related.

Alan F. Hickman is an Associate Professor of English at The American University in Dubai. He received his Ph.D. in Contemporary British Literature from the University of Arkansas in 1990. He is also an inveterate traveler, having graduated from high school in 1968, in Wiesbaden, Germany, where his father was an Air Force pilot, and having taught English as a second language with the Peace Corps in Thailand, sailed with the U.S. Navy as a PACE (Program for Afloat College Education) instructor, and taught five years at the American University in Bulgaria. His publications include poems and scholarly articles.