Brave Heart Beating

A warrior passed
Glimpsing the fairness
. . . And fortitude.
He turned back.

It was a pleasantness.
So he enticed with
Trinkets, small presents,
Miscellaneous tokens of interest.
And interest mounted
Until the day
. . . He chose to speak.

Words and topics were carefully chosen,
. . . Just as with the enticements.
And the heart stood still to look and listen.
Seeing he'd gained his audience,
The warrior's stature grew
. . . Along with his confidence,
Plus a nest of small, fringed things.

His speech grew in intensity
His topics expanded,
Exchanges grew.
The nest of small fringed things grew
Revealing itself as
A small nest of roots
Twining and braiding together.

Heaven and Hell watched
As the warrior's attachment grew
. . . With the brave heart
It was an enjoyment to both
And they finally determined to test
The strength of the roots.

Carefully, the pair, blinded to all but the other,
Was surrounded by sheaves of dried thistle
The thistle ring was discretely set aflame

The warrior escaped,
Claiming innocence and requesting pardon.
But the brave heart remained,
Trapped by the hunger of the blaze.

The flames leapt into the air
Hungrily devouring everything in their way
For twenty-one days.

On the thirtieth day,
The angels and the devils brought the warrior back to the place
Where the thistle ashes lay.
They came to see what survived the test.

They peered inside his chest and found
A nest of fringed roots
Torn and ripped and mixed with
Like pieces not from him.

Then they looked into the ashes
And forced the warrior to look with them.
He tried not to look, ashamed as he was
For his ruthlessness and lack of care.
They could see nothing. All was grey ash.

So they took a straw broom
And swept the ashes carefully
. . . Oh, so carefully.

Lo! A glimpse of yellow was revealed.
So they brushed away more ash and soot
Until they found

A perfect gold heart,
Cold as ice,
With a great hole in it.
Within the hole were small fringed roots
Latching onto other roots from elsewhere.
While the heart
Beat very bravely

Waiting and alone.