As heartbreak goes | Ashley Hardin

pain sinks the

bones I used to know

and rises the tongues

I kissed before I knew

you.                                                                                                  

grief spills evenly

over the ruined body,

hungry for the 

masses to latch on

and grope the body

I used to know.

heaviness numbed 

chambers of the heart and

stirred the vivid imagination that

I eagerly clung too during nights

of freedom by replicating a

time where you laid on

top of me.

life was like this for a while,

fragile pieces of organs,

loose hair strands laced over collarbones

and muscles with nowhere to go,

love was in my body

but it had no recipient

not even for myself   

but as heartbreak goes,

it became easier to               

move the toes forward

and creep beneath the masses

that lost their grip on my

outer jaw and stomach lining

and though it got easier and

I rekindled the love for myself,

deep down I’ll forever

wait for grief to leave me,

because as it seems there is

a special one that will

always have a hold on

me.    

---

Ashley Hardin has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and Public Relations. Her poetry will be published in The Journal of Undiscovered Poets in 2025.