For health

Who would have imagined
my survival's last companion,

a Pacemaker.

A union of one flesh, obviously.

It nestles inside my sternum

happy with setting my heart

but also grateful.

It recognises that
it too lives by dint of my heart

like a man does.

The heart’s guardian angel.

Accompanies it everywhere, during sleep

at church, the cemetery

the cafe, the theatre

the mind’s
long journeys.

It lifts

all of the heart’s weights,

the heart must not lift even its own feather. 

A touchingly discreet companion

never asking about the heart’s past

but measuring its pulse day and night.

It says to the heart
I am here don’t worry

I am all yours believe me

as if in love. Madly.

Momentarily. Like others before it.

---------------------------------------------

Personal notes: 

This poem was published as part of the collection 'Public time' (2014).

The poem is a prime example of the poet's long list of musings about love and loss. 

The subject of the poem is the romantic 'relationship' between a heart and its pacemaker [The heart and the pacemaker are personified in the original Greek text - the heart is a feminine noun and the pacemaker a masculine noun.]

The use of the first person in the first stanza ('my survival') suggests that Dimoula is referring to her own medical condition, which makes this a personal and confessional poem.

At first, the 'relationship' at the centre of the poem may seem amusing. A closer read suggests something more 'classic', universal and sincere at its core - a love story of unparalleled intimacy, affection and co-existence, and, ultimately, devastating failure. 

Dimoula achieves a remarkable balance between contradictory elements in the poem's story and its delivery. The subject is both tragic and comic, she is caustic and tender, bitter and caring, detached and emotional, wise and immature. 

There is also no happy end to the story - this love, like all past loves in the poet's life, is doomed to fail. The denouement is foreshadowed in the fourth stanza (one of the places the poet visits is the cemetery - a symbol of all the poet has lost in the past, including her husband) but delivered with a powerful blow at the poem's last line.