HEARTBURST
A Poem by Christel Jeffs
A Swarovski crystal shattered in my chest,
I thought it would remain behind glass,
priceless,
left behind walls,
but it imploded
its penchant for light and color,
lost
in excruciating shards
spreading through my body.
What if
the pieces still sparkle
under my skin?
What if they shimmer through eyes of empathy
or explode violent hues
in the fall of my healing footsteps?
Maybe in tears there are prisms of hope,
and in sweat a glorious shout
of survival.
Maybe the heart did not break,
but burst.
Christel Jeffs is, first and foremost, a beloved daughter of God: the one Jesus loves. Beyond that she is a writer, editor, and counselor. She lives in Northland, New Zealand, the place which serves as the backdrop for her debut novel, The Gumdigger’s Wife (2016). Her poetry has featured in several Fast Fibres Poetry anthologies as well as the literary journals The Way Back to Ourselves and Calla Press. She loves to help others re-write their stories through her counselling work while continuing to author her own, guided by the greatest Storyteller of all.
