Featured Artist: Laura Southgate
He tore out my heart, to make it his—
battering iron bands around my bleating pulp
and crammed back in.
I miss a time without pain,
every little beat bangs against sharp iron.
My master made me watch,
slipping each one on slowly, slowly
to draw out the strangulation from the weight.
I wanted it to end
but my tortured heart keeps me tightly ticking—
to complete my bond to serve.
By finding my master a bride for him to break
I might be released from his iron fist.
But my mind is torn from this mission.
What permission do I have to complete his missive?
How can I sit idly by as another life
gets burned away by my master’s touch.
It was the last straw.
This puppet had snapped from his master’s iron bondage—
though it was not the only thing to have been broken.
My heart has never since missed a beat.
This creative piece was submitted as part of our June Theme: Fairytale. If you would like to submit your own creative work to aAh! Magazine, please email aAh.Editor@gmail.com, and be sure to check our latest “Letter from the Editors” to find out next month’s theme.
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