Bradley Cooper once said that
the world will break your heart
ten ways to Sunday.
Before
Sunday your heart is meringue
that crumbles and cracks
in every direction: Top to bottom,
side to side,
through the depths of the
white gentle cookie.
But I see these ten ways and
split them in half.
5 of them are the bad dreams
you return to every time you close your eyes
the night you regretfully watched Silence Of the Lambs
with your older sister and her friends.
They are the nauseating stomach drop you get
before you faint, and the day
you bring your older sister to college
all at once. 
The other five days
are the defender you learn
to avoid the second time you go to goal,
and the map with directions so
that you can escape the world of the city that never sleeps.
Your heart is not meringue,
it’s an apple that gets some
nasty cuts and bruises
but only smashes with direct contact.