The Heart of Syria

In the below piece of scribbling under the title of "Abdication", done in Cornwall in the Summer of 2006, sacrificed corpses with their hearts cut out for a preacher's barbecue were mentioned. In April 2007 while travelling in Syria, in the city of Hama, I came across this massive bovine heart hanging on a hook above the sidewalk in front of a butcher shop. No refrigeration, I had to tap at the hook to shoo the flies away... Can you imagine taking this home to fry up for dinner? Actually, I took this photo for my father, a professor of anatomy, who has been searching in the innermost hidden depths of heart chambers and valves and walls to reveal reluctant secrets for as long as I can remember... and they have proved almost as elusive as the Holy Grail.
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