A Permeable Heart
David M. Alper
The insubstantial, rootless character of words
bothers her as she thinks, but they are the most
worthless things you cannot afford to lose.
People-pleasers don’t require words. Regrets,
like weeds, must be eradicated before they
spread. If a permeable heart begets
disappointment, hers is flint. She claims she
doesn’t need love or hate. She wonders if there is
a mathematical formula for calculating
how quickly someone is forgotten.
David M. Alper‘s forthcoming poetry collection is Hush. His work appears in Scapegoat Review, Invisible City, New Note Poetry, and elsewhere. He is an educator in New York City.
© Variant Literature Inc 2023