The Great Heart

[thegeekgene]

Title: The Great Heart
Series: Sherlock Holmes
Genre: poetry
Word Count: 212
Notes: The original title was 'As Seen in the Gerrideb House' but no one knew what I was talking about.



We hadn't known each other long
when you asked for a demonstration.
We were playing chess
and you were saying that I couldn't possibly see
all the things you'd already observed me seeing.
I said, “I should be delighted.”
And you gave me your watch.
In it I read the story of your brother
who drank and died and wasted his life
and I think you wished you had never asked me.

Different, isn't it, Watson?
When it's something personal?
Something close?
Something other than, 'that man's a sailor
and his eldest child is a daughter'
or reciting a crime to criminal
who had thought himself unstoppable.
Those are things drawn
from moments or hours of contemplation
and I wonder if you realize that
for you, I've had years.
Some days I think I know everything about you.
On the rest,
I know I do.
This isn't an insult but a statement of fact and
if I didn't love you for it
do you really think I would have kept you around this long?

I've let you leave me once already,
to marry the late Mrs. Watson,
and once had to leave you,
on the trail of my nemesis.
It won't happen again.
You're my one fixed point in a changing world.