Broken-hearted Brain

By Kayla Tougas

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Wernicke’s Area: located in the temporal lobe, involved in the comprehension of language

When a boy showers you in love and then takes it away, you are left in cruel confusion. An arrow pierces your heart, so you hold your chest, sit silently in your white dress, and stare out the car window to the midnight gray sky for answers. You long for the night to engulf you, take away your pain, but you are left choking down his words and choking back tears. I don’t understand: I loved you, I love you, I’ll always love you. It’s a never-ending battle of semantics, so you wave your white flag reluctantly––you don’t want to understand. But comprehension slowly swallows your body, soaking your face in a wet glisten and your soul in sadness: what once was will never be again. It was a gray July.

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Cerebellum: coordinates movements; controls posture, balance, and fine motor movement

You lost your balance and fell for him. He fell too, but he now stood towering over you, onehand outstretched. Get up. You can’t. It’s as if your body was glued to the Earth. That’s where you were left, where you stay, with your body outstretched on the ground staring at the constellations. For a time, the stars were aligned, but now it was just a cluttered chaos. You close your eyes and imagine a tightrope: before you dreamt of falling, but now you fantasize of staying on the rope poised and confident. You dream of balance.

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Synapse: connects neurons, allows messages to be transmitted from one neuron to the next

[Warning] There is a leak in your chest and puddle of blood at your feet. Stop pouring your heart out to him, you’re creating a shortage of that love within yourself. Stop being foolish.

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Hippocampus: deep in temporal lobe, forms and stores episodic memories

Amygdala: in front of hippocampus, processing center for emotions, links emotions to memories

In grief, you remember love. Memories flood your head (and eyes), an unwarranted intrusion. They seep into your consciousness as the gray mist envelopes the midnight sky. You taste them on the tip of your tongue until the saccharine memories become rotten with what ifs.

You know this feeling will linger.

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