February 1: An Octopus Has Three Whole Hearts

[February Feels Like]

and sometimes I lie awake thinking

about all that lub-dubbing

on the ocean floor and no one to hear it.

What kind of god gives a cephalopod 

three but a human only one?
I want more thumps. I want more time.

I want to waste my love on everything.

Give me a heart for Ohio. Another

for a silk butter moon. Another

for the park bench man who swoons

for doves, his quiet hands full of crumbs.

---

Joy Sullivan, Instructions for Traveling West (2024)

---

hello again!