Poem: Theft #the100dayproject Day 34...66 more to go

Today's prompt was to write a poem about something stolen. I decided to write about how revision can steal the life out of a poem.

Theft

Stealing a poem is similar

to stealing a heart.

A poem beats and pulses

just as a heart does,

and when I cut it out,

surgically revise it,

and transplant it 

on some other page,

it can beat again,

but it takes time;

I must massage it,

feel it between my hands.

And when the last suture

is threaded and tied,

the poem is never

the same as it was,

scarred right through

the sternum of its words,

cracked open,

all the mystery flew away

disappeared like a soft dew.