I’m very proud to introduce you to a brand new cinepoem, Voleur de Coeur.
It means Thief of Hearts, and was filmed recently on a a foggy Saturday in San Francisco with the help of my faithful cinépoem partner, Michelle Brown. This is the first cinepoem I’ve shot post-pregnancy, and really that’s what it’s all about, too.
I’ve spent the last two years learning how to be a mother and a writer. I certainly don’t have either figured out, but I am on my way to finding my footing on paper again, and Voleur is a chronicle of that journey.
You can watch the story unfold here, on the cinepoems page or over here, on my YouTube channel.
And here are the words…
Voleur de Coeur
Awakened by absence,
you automatically reach
for the place you keep
the only thing
that ever mattered
but hands grasp
only an empty space
devoid of pulse.
The first thought screams
this must be your fault
and search frenzy ensues.
You upend pockets
and terrorize seams, hunting
with zealot fingers
as if there was ever a chance
of recovery.
The second thought
stuns your limbs to stillness
as you realize
this loss could ruin you.
Enter desperate inertia.
Just lie there and
breathe.
and breathe.
and breathe.
Eventually you must stand up
and retrace your steps
feet leaden with the knowledge
of your futility.
At first the world seems unchanged.
Sky blue.
Grass green.
Gravity on.
But birdsong carries all the wrong notes
and sunlight is a pale facsimile
of her former glorious blaze.
And you, oh you are hardly the same.
Hardly sane.
Hardly here.
On you wander through a day
then stumble over a month
then lose yourself in a year.
But only when you finally abandon
every last pretense of hope
do you reach the place
you were destined to go all along.
She is waiting there,
que petit voleur
having stolen your heart, yes
but only to return it
bigger
and better
and infinitely more beautiful
than ever.
-Lo: changed, present, and sane.
LaDonnaWitmer 