Heart in your hands

There are days... Everyone has them... You stand at the end of a trail of decisions that you thought would have led to a different destination. Of course, many other people have those same reflective moments on some days. In the late 1800s, those who survived the Civil War had such moments. Stephen Crane was one post-Civil War disillusionary who captured such a moment in a poem. He didn't write with titles for his poems; he just wrote the poems. Here's one of his reflections.

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter -- bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

There are those days...