I have a speck of sand - I say that triumphantly.

Stab me, cut me. I now have a heart protected with stone.

One day I will blow it away, reveal the tenderness. Expose it. It will bleed, and bruise, and tear if you harm it - but no one will ever be able to harm its core. A core of diamond, or a mother of pearl.

The days of last year, the miserable days. They were droplets of rain, a drizzle, a thunderstorm, a monsoon, all sorts of horrible names I hurled at the sky. Signals for my paper heart to cover itself.

Now I wake up and discover it had been a sandstorm all the while. A piece speck of sand has entered my body, an irritant. An irritant I will line with nacre and transform into a droplet of pearl.

That will be a wish I will hold onto. Wishes might come true.