Where There's A Heart Poem by gershon hepner

Where there’s a heart there’s a pancreas,
for all the world depends
on sugar and, of course, on gas
with which it starts and ends,
illuminated like a flame
until it is extinguished,
when sweet and better are the same,
and cannot be distinguished.

Inspired by David Wheatley’s poem “Breughel’s Proverbs” in the TLS January 19,2008


Before making a fart you must catch it.
The deaf man applauds the hurdy-gurdy too.
If the sheep-fancier spurns your sheep
his heart is elsewhere. Where there is no heart
there is no pancreas. No one hates an idiot
like the village’s second stupidest man.
It is quicker to beat your husband than walk
To the next town and write him a letter. Envy
the bathing sow on the day it rains dung.
The bishop suns his mouth then sits on it.
The gangrenous leg knows hacksaw work
when it feels it. The rat trap feels it ought
to apologize for the baker’s mouldy cheese.
When your pigs fly they’re not coming back.
Two can shit through the same hole as cheaply as one
The wooden spoon does not match the shape
of your backside for nothing. The hangman combs
his hair before putting his hood on. The gravedigger
will not be taking out ads. The old buffoon
has always got some proverbs or other to hand.



1/19/08