on your heart, peel away skin
and muscle and bone to touch
what the rockstar surgeon saw,

feel it flubdub against your palms,
turn it over with great tenderness,
would your fingers trace

the barnacles that have erupted
like calcified volcanoes? Know
that they’re more animal than

mineral, relying on the saltwater
of you to survive, though it’s
unclear how you’ve accumulated

your collection. Do they grow their
shells over time like fingernails?
Did you earn each crusty fouler

after major disappointments?
Or is each a badge awarded
for earnest love, for attracting

other curious crustaceans
like your cousin the crab to your
good and well-decorated heart?

•••

For Dickie, who was, to his beloved parents, Richard I, named after Richard the Lionheart, the 12th-century English king.