If a heart breaks and you're not around to hear it because you're too busy trying to calm your rapid breathing and stop your mascara from smudging,

Does it make a sound?

It must, I think.

The question then becomes:

What kind of sound?

BA-BOOM. An explosion. The sound of a your aorta snapping

From the main ventricle, the cacophony of the cardiac chambers

Imploding

Utter destruction. Out with a bang.

The soft whisper

Of a piece of paper torn in half.

Your heart is fragile.

Ripped paper can be used

Again, but for a different purpose.

It is now

Scrap paper for scribbling

Numbers and lists and stick figures until

Discarded once more.

The metallic sound of glass

Shattering,

Thousands of shards flying outward like

Tiny knives armed and ready to stab

The parts of you that are still whole.

Or maybe

It's the nearly silent sound

Of the last leave drifting from the branches

Of an oak at the end of autumn,

That sound of the last sign of life leaving

Its arms and landing in the soft pile of

Of worn-out compatriots.

The tree is dead.

For now.

Yes, that must be it.