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SONG OF A BROKEN HEART, by DUSTIN BROOKSHIRE


​No one ever dies from a broken heart. 
You regret. You lie to yourself. You cry, 
but you breathe. You live. You do your part
 
to carry on. A man is just a man. Not rare art,   
nor do his words echo from on high.   
No one ever dies from a broken heart, 
 
I repeat to myself, force a smile, as we part.
I regret. I lie to myself. I cry, 
but I breathe. I live. I do my part 
 
to embrace my feelings. Where to start
to process it all, to heal? It isn’t a lie 
that no one dies from a broken heart. 
 
Cancer and diabetes top the chart    
for leading causes of death. I will die,
but today, I breathe. I laugh. I do my part
 
to not be held hostage by fear. I start 
the day again. I remind myself why: 
No one ever dies from a broken heart. 
We breathe. We love. We do our part. 



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Dustin Brookshire is a Dolly Parton fanatic, poet, and curator of the Wild & Precious Life Series. He is the author of To The One Who Raped Me (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012).  His poetry has earned him a Pushcart Prize nomination and has been published in Whiskey Island, Assaracus, RFD, Mollyhouse, Subtle Tea, Ocho, Oranges & Sardines, Ourobors, and other publications.  He has been anthologized in Divining Divas: 100 Gay Men on their Muses (Lethe Press, 2012) and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014).   
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