Heart Racing Away (Poetry)

It races away
as if there’s somewhere
it just has to be
and so urgently
flesh is left behind

I cannot keep up
the drumming’s painful
destroys my balance
and each faint protest
is a waste of breath

My chest can’t stand how
its walls are beaten
as though a captive
tests them for weak spots
gone mad to escape

Then without warning
and in answer to
a firing pistol
that ball of muscle’s
pounding fit to bust

I’m like a dead weight
but it won’t slow down
simply romps away
I hang on — even
though it’s killing me