The heart doesn’t say tick-tock.
In truth, the heart says very little.
Lub-dub in the textbook,
dhak-dhak in the poet’s aphorism,
But mostly it’s quiet.
I count beats only when they are missing,
but mostly I try to notice
even though I’m listening,
all the time.

— Saranya Manivannan (Introduction to Preeti Vangani’s The Other Side of Loneliness)