Penny for a heart

I can feel my heart empty and fill itself in my chest The sound is a comfort But the sensation is unnerving Must a small part of me always be interchangeably empty to survive? Will I never be allowed the satisfaction of fullness? Of solidity? I feel like my heart is split open at times Begging to be filled with secondhand love Like cheap pencil on cheaper paper acting as a way to translate the cheapest of knowledge I hunger for fulfillment Crave it like a starving animal scampering empty streets Not even the darkened alleyways are my home now In them is only a hollow where there was once familiarity welcoming my beaten life's muscle with open arms I feel as though those alleyways have taken my heart Have stripped me of the feral dog in my chest Have given an animal not supposed to be domesticated in its place Like an unfair trade where diamonds are worth pennies