On Certain Days...

Certain Days

by Grace Paley

On certain days I am not in love
and my heart turns over

                       crowding the lungs for
                       air

                       driving blood in and out of
                       the skull improving my mind

                       working muscles to the bone

                       dashing resonance out of a roaring sea
                       at my nerve endings

Not much is needed

                       air

                       good sense

                       power

                       a noisy taking in and a
                       loud giving back

Then my heart like any properly turned
motor takes off in sparks dragging all that machinery
through the blazing day
                       like grass
                                           which our lord knows
                                             I am

"Certain Days" by Grace Paley, from Begin Again: Collected Poems. © Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Reprinted with permission. (buy now) 

From "The Writer's Almanac"