For The Inauguration of President Barack Obama by Ira F. Stone

The Imperishable Divide

How the heart
with its necessary
division maintains
its tasks changing
color as it moves
from one chamber
to the other with
news of the furthest
and messages
for the closest

How it especially
takes the breath
through hinterlands

How susceptible
to ache and
ready to swell
in pride or
cower in
disappointment

How it heals itself
and breaks and scars

How it is damaged
by blockages anywhere
in the system but

How its wholeness
is always various
and when healthy
throbs with near-mad
hope and believes
if it is not endless
it is at least prepared
to give itself over
to the waiting
hands of its children
to be carried in their
hearts as though
there is a unity across
the imperishable divide