He had an operation to remove a nail embedded in his chest
The nail was made of iron and had an affinity for his blood
Hemoglobin, rich with Oxygen, is mildly attracted to magnetic fields
He was mildly attracted to various things
There was a woman at the movie theater who he stared at
Unusual for him, he found her difficult to ignore
The nail was red-hot from being in a high-frequency induction coil
He held it in a pair of pliers and fell down the stairs
The nail was pointed at his heart
She was not like other women
He started to see her in crowded rooms,
Driving a car down the street
A tenpenny nail is three inches long
In the days when nails were wrought by hand
A single nail was worth ten cents
Maybe it was the same woman, and maybe it was not the same woman
The attraction took hold in earnest
And he longed for her – he made complex scenarios about her
The nail had missed piercing the sternum, passing between ribs
And avoiding his right lung my one centimeter
His heart was in no danger
He never met her or spoke to her
He imagined that she was fascinated by him,
That she contrived ways to meet him, perhaps as an accident
She would show him the nail, later
Wrapped in sterile gauze, and say
“Look what just missed your heart”.
©2017 eolon