Brick boats with corrugated iron sails on a padded playground sea

The LubDub bird sang from a chest of buried crosses, hearts and anchors while the body was stuck on a bus ride looped between academia and a cave, waiting for his muse to return from a funeral which reunited a split family.



Pressed up against
the brick wall

Sore ears listen for a heart
beat face



is faded pink and sand-brown
roughened by teeth
of erosion


How does one keep smiling
when the ground cracks open
tolling bells
their metal edge beat the ground
quaking hands
pull the ropes from underground

toes are over the ledge
road leans in
the rift howls
winds push and pull
swaying here tired
the fence I hold is a prop
painted on metal billow
canvas tears from hail
hail the sky with ice
sailor-rope hold
me up
my rope is nailed in sand by rusty molars which are polished & disinfected every day





i smile at the ledge

The beat I hear
reverberates through the jaw
a base feeling rather than audible
SOUND
a tap-tapTappa-tap-tap
not a da-dumda-dum

Press hands up against
the wall to
FEEL
a scratch-scratchscreech-scratch
not a lub-dublub-dub


folded on the ground
toes gripping grass
eyes staring at that ominous
WALL
my heart beats steadily
clenching teeth
you can feel a rhythm
close your eyes
feel it through your jaw
steady beat
calming pump
valves open
close on time
keep the flow
stream of change
red with blue
rage with sky
calm with fire
grind rough stone
loosen clots
my stones lodged in soft vein tissue mixed with broken glass & fine alloy shavings

BEAT

I smile at the ledge


in time
they will become smooth
times currents
become gems and ore
sound of being
rhythm of life
carries through
the noise of engines
the machine of traffic the cog of the blind mass