"A Human Heart" by Austin Davis
I’m missing you,
so obviously, this cloud
looks like a heart.
Not the corporate, greeting
card, capitalist kind of heart,
all cartoonish and fake,
or the smooth shape
two swans’ necks make
when they’re about
to get it on
to some lofi jazz shit,
but a real heart.
This is the kind of heart
I’ve drawn at the bottom
of every love poem
I’ve ever written you.
This is a human heart,
gross and squishy –
as raw and intimate
as standing naked in the daylight
in front of your soulmate
for the first time.
This is the kind of heart
that makes sure
your hand pulls out a dollar
every time a homeless woman
tells a shopping cart
about her childhood.
This is the only sad, beautiful
little thing no poet could ever
find a way to capture
with a pen or a cigarette,
the soft, juicy peach
floating through our night’s
quiet chest, far too in love
with the way its sun
will always love the color purple
at 5 in the afternoon
to take another beat
or shed another tear.
About the poet Austin Davis
"A Human Heart" by Austin Davis is a raw, evocative meditation on the authenticity of emotion and the vulnerability of love. In the poem, Davis contrasts the clichéd, superficial representations of the heart with a depiction of a "real" human heart—messy, imperfect, and deeply intimate. He uses vivid imagery and unconventional metaphors—from clouds shaped like hearts to the tactile, almost grotesque nature of genuine emotion—to underscore that true love and humanity cannot be neatly packaged or commodified. Instead, they are embodied in every deeply personal and flawed moment, whether it's the act of drawing a heart in a love poem or the bittersweet experience of witnessing another's struggles. The poem challenges us to appreciate the beauty in raw, unfiltered emotion, inviting us to embrace our authentic selves, imperfections and all.
Discover more about Austin Davis, his unique poetic vision, and his contributions to Arizona’s vibrant literary scene by visiting his full bio HERE.
Summary
Missing someone causes the speaker to see a heart in a cloud—but not the polished symbol of greeting cards. Instead, he imagines an actual human heart: messy, vulnerable, compassionate and ultimately impossible for poetry to fully capture.
Analysis
Davis begins with one of love poetry’s most familiar symbols and immediately refuses its prettified version. The heart is neither a greeting-card icon nor a pair of romantic swans; it is “gross and squishy.” That physicality makes vulnerability bodily rather than decorative. The poem then enlarges the meaning of having a heart beyond romantic love: compassion toward a homeless woman belongs to the same emotional organ as intimacy with a soulmate. Finally, the speaker admits that even poets cannot adequately capture it. The poem therefore uses metaphor while simultaneously acknowledging metaphor’s limits—the real human heart remains stranger, messier and more beautiful than its symbols.