An expression undreamt of

Silhouette by Lotte Reiniger from her animated film,
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

Das Ornament des Verliebten Herzens

The ornament of the enamored heart catches the light in German.
It weeps crystals whenever it hears a woman speak her mother tongue. It spends winters in Luzern and hibernates in Pilatus in summer.

It longs through the night when left alone in a room in Oregon.
It wails for no reason but the company of its own voice. It should know better, and does, but that does not prevent it from yearning.

It is made of a substance unknown to anyone but the woman who touches it. It is a color only a woman with eyes that penetrate the silks of darkness can see. It keeps its shape perfectly though no one is looking.

No tree will extend a branch to uplift it.
No shelf will move dust to display it.
No hands will admit to having made it.

It is an expression undreamt of in space or time.
It is devoid of design or craftsmanship.
It is a beautifully sorrowful work of art.

The ornament of the enamored heart is a broken rattle hissing at the sun. The ornament of the enamored heart is the sloughed off skin of love. The ornament of the enamored heart is the heart that was and might have been.

Joseph Gallo
September 4, 2005