Her heart was born
bleeding, just a bit,
a tiny pinprick and
in the filth and mist
of this shantytown
she was never clean
and the doctors were
dead or shuttled off
in service of the new
aristocracy and the
hole grew larger till
all her life force
trickled free.

Mike L. Nichols is a graduate of Idaho State University and a recipient of the Ford Swetnam Poetry Prize. He lives and writes in Eastern Idaho. Look for his poetry in Rogue Agent, Tattoo Highway, Ink&Nebula, Plainsongs Magazine, and elsewhere. Find more at deadgirldancing.net