Containment
I have a heart.
An empty little heart.
And I mean to fill it with all sorts of things.
I want to fill it with joy and happiness.

I want to fill it with warm paws and wagging tails.
I want to fill it with wet noses and playful bites.

I want to fill it with simple things
Like a plastic bag dancing in the wind
Like the sound of dry leaves crunching underfoot
Like the smell of woodspice in the air when the train crosses the marshland
Like my mother's hands
Like kites taking wing
Soaring in the hot blue skies of noon
And gliding through the pale pink hues of evening
Like my father's eyes
Sometimes stern, sometimes wistful and nostalgic
Very rarely tearful
And always warm upon my forehead

I want to fill it with childhood dreams
Lost summers, faraway winters
The patter of rabbits' feet
The comforting lap of my aunt, who was more than a mother
The birds in the guava tree
Half-eaten rose hips
And nibbled away pomegranates
The clumps of hot dust rising from the courtyard
Freshly watered, and gradually cooling
Sparrows' nests in the eaves
An ancient table crowded with inks, brushes and an easel
Bookshelves groaning under the weight of well-thumbed books
Floors and corners as cool as ice
Heaters as snug as a blanket
Stolen icecream
Borrowed tea

Most of all, I want to fill it with love
I want to fill it with you
I want to fill it with all the memories we've made in a hundred different places at a thousand different times
Like the pebble on the road where I first met you
Like the handful of sand from the beach where your hand lingered upon mine
Like the gravel from that night and those streets belonging to a city of old forts and new dreams
Like a clump of grass from an unnamed park in a foreign land
Like a fistful of water from a river where the moon walks
Like the dust that tumbled along with a few stray strands of hair on your spotless floor

Like all the streets and shadows and nights and mornings and lives and loves I've lived in every line I've ever written

Like a mouthful of sky from all the dreams where I've met you, walked with you, cried with you, laughed with you

Like all the things we have been, have never been and will be.

I just want to fill my little heart with so many things
Till it is bursting at the seams

And then I want to give it to you
In cupped palms
Like a prayer

Hold it together for me?
Hold all of it together for me?