A Small kitten in Your Heart

A Small kitten in Your Heart

There’s a small kitten in your heart.
You keep it locked up in there
A silent secret, hidden deep within.
Feelings steeled away in a private
chamber, protected from the rage
of circumstance.

At night, it purrs softly in your
lap, shares the tears burning down
your red cheeks like hot lava.
You’ve learned not to share kitty
lest also it be killed, turning
to stone your diminished heart.

When you get the shit kicked out of you
long enough, long enough and
long enough, you know how to survive-
really survive! Your words like razors,
silence like inert acid, an artist etching
your way through every trauma.

Some days you show me your kitten. You
coax it out of the heart’s cage, into the sunlight
and I gently stroke its fur. When I give you
something good; let’s say my feelings, you
become a strong woman and the kitten
hangs around a while longer. I live
for those moments!