Nature’s Valentines

Bleeding Hearts

“Love asks us to offer up our hearts for breaking.”
     —  Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Set You Free

The common names of so many plants are quite apt.  The bleeding heart is one such flower — it looks like a heart leaking a drop of blood.  I think of Roger Housden’s quote when I see it.

Heart-shaped Leaf

“A Perfect Heart”
by Ted Kooser

To make a perfect heart you take a sheet
of red construction paper of the type
that’s rough as a cat’s tongue, fold it once,
and crease it really hard, so it feels
as if your thumb might light up like a match,

then choose your scissors from the box.  I like
those safety scissors with the sticky blades
and the rubber grips that pinch a little skin
as you snip along.  They make you careful,
just as you should be, cutting out a heart

for someone you love.  Don’t worry that your curve
won’t make a valentine; it will.  Rely
on chewing on your lip and symmetry
to guide your hand along with special art.
And there it is at last: a heart, a heart!