A Broken Heart
The day I realised that my heart broke, like the stalk of corn ripped in summer, or a mountain of red sand razed by storm, by a violent wind or a wild goose, I rushed to the roadside vulcaniser to help me stitch its pieces together. But he glared at me with open mouth, tugged at his tyres, rolled them over and whispered in my ears, you’re neither a tube nor a sulphur. I hurried to my local haberdasher to use his craft to mend me well, with needles, threads or similar things. The ziggy-ziggy noise of his sewing machine was the singular noise in the neighbourhood. He shook his body and waved me off. Do not tempt your loyal haberdasher. I was on the way to the dry cleaners when their van pulled beside me. Make me clean and sew me up, and I shall be a brick fit for a house. The cleaner smiled like summer snow and patted my shoulder amid a body quake. You can do this, young man, do it alone. Fix yourself at home, and you're well again. I pulled myself together and stared at the sky, remembering the wise words of my father, that every heart must heal itself in the city, or forever die while searching for joy; a life that grows well will not break apart and is already fixed before it breaks again
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Unleash Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets and elsewhere. He won the Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest in 2022 and the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. His first poetry collection, Blame the Gods, published by Kingsman Quarterly in 2023 was finalist at the Black Diaspora Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize 2024.