Valentine's Day

I feel like I've lost something today. This day feels like a 24-hour long equivalent of having to go through a box of love letters collected over a century, only to know I'll have to throw all of them on the fire, one by one. This day, to me, is hard on the soul.

This day brings tears for all I've done wrong, and pain where my heart's once been. This day is a reminder not of lonliness, but of lost opportunity. Of the truth -- that, most often, there is no second chance. This is the day of countless, broken in the torn sunlight.

This is the day of the blood red heart, separated from the chest, unbeating. Today is the symbol of this heart upon each person's sleeve -- torn from our warmth, and -- as strong as is the heart -- left in the air to die.

This is the one day that the heart is a fist-sized bundle of muscle meat, raw, there on the plate.

This is our day of sacrifice, self-inflicted. Today says "I'd die for you"; or, maybe I'll just pull out my heart, remember all I've done wrong, understand that truly at the heart of humanity there is no forgiveness, and die.

This is Valentine's Day.

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