The Understanding Heart

I eventually accepted
the common usage of the heart
as the organ that feels emotion
even though it plainly does not.

It does not ache or break
or desire or sink or flutter
or harden or burst or be still
unless you have died.

But it does beat faster if you are excited
and pound if you are afraid
so I have reluctantly conceded
to this anthropomorphism of the cardiac organ.

But 'the understanding heart'?
That is going too far by far.
It does not comprehend a thing.
It is a muscle, a four-chambered, valved pump

Not a processor, thinker or philosopher
It does not reason, it beats.
Please give the brain credit
where credit is due.