this heart's a mess

Medium

Digital

Artist Notes

© 2011 RC deWinter ~ All Rights Reserved ________________________________________________________________________ harvesting the heart ________________________________________________________________________ she’s already scrubbed her hands to surgical cleanliness. forsaking latex – it’s her own blood, after all - she readies herself for the procedure. on the table in the light of a strong lamp the necessities are arrayed: swathes of gauze, snips and suturing, gleaming needle, oceans of bacteria killer and the knife, resurrected from the case she’d packed away, so sure she’d never need it anymore. next to the table sits a three-legged tray that holds the post-op preservation paraphernalia. whispery tissuepaper ripples softly in the light, but the leaden box is dull and final. ready now, she strips, lavishly splashing her chest with the chlorhexidine gluconate mess, and, knife in hand, she slides it down a little to the left, exposing her scarred heart. one swift cut and out it comes. stuffing in the gauze, she plops the useless organ onto the waiting tissue. twist and roll, roll and twist, the heart, surrounded softly, is surrendered to its coffin once again, and wearily she threads the needle strong and stitches a design of loss on skin that has known this pattern in the past. ~ © 2010 RC deWinter