I dab my pen into red ink.
A cardiologist knows well
the pump, pulses, and rhythms
of this curious organ, but who knows
the heart is a furnace, housing a blazing inferno,
dwarfing Nebuchadnezzar’s raging kiln?
The gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
Lava streams through mine.
Peter Venable has written secular and sacred verse for many decades. He’s appeared in Third Wednesday, THEMA, Prairie Messenger, The Christian Century, The Merton Seasonal, and others. He is a septuagenarian, happily married, “Poppy” to two granddaughters, and volunteers at a prison camp. He is at Petercvenable.wordpress.com
