It's impossible to ask me to articulate the sound of a heartbeat.

I will skirt around the answer, instead describing to you the nuances of cardiac cells.  I will describe their release of autoinducers to evoke a signaling pathway to activate beating.  I will illustrate to you the blood flow through atria and ventricles.  I will tell you that the two primary heart sounds, caused by the opening and closing of heart valves, are described as S1 and S2, and are supplemented by physiological murmurs and gallop rhythms.

Yet in my mind, my thoughts dance over the warmth of fingers resting in the palm of my hand, tracing slow spirals on my skin, as my cheek presses against the resistance of sternum.  Silhouettes are cast by moonlight, and the last priority on my mind is the physiological scheme behind every rise and fall.

The needle touches the track, and its gentle whispers play on.

Th-thump.  Th-thump.  Th-thump.

-+-

Outside of my fiery ambitions within the scopes of academia and professionalism, my aspiration is to want for nothing.  It is to waste not a single thought on myself.

I reached a fork in the road, where my shoulders shook with the heaviness of my heart and of my kindness.  My knees buckled under the weight, and I was forced to choose only one.

At the place where the sun meets the horizon, I left my heart behind.

If I never find my answers, that means nothing to me, if it means that you'll find yours.

Heart -- I'm sending back for you.  Hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride!