Heartless

“Conflicted”
Painting by Bob Brown
From bobbrown.com

glad and sad
tenants in conflict
share one room
one bed in my
studio brain
each awake when
the other is not
they have nothing
in common this
smile and these tears
no words pass
between them
I’m glad for that
otherwise I
would go crazy from
combative conflict
transferred from
their mutual bigotry
foisting their
chauvinist insolence
into my too often
cut apart heart
never healthy
enough to hold
properly fully
one simple emotion
but two such as
these oppositional
sentiments duking
it out oh my God
they would burst
through old stitches
scarred seams
would split open
and I would be left
neither peacefully
glad nor depressingly
sad just a sorrowful
sack cold and heartless