A seismograph is placed on his heart
and the earth trembles

There are so many people under its lid as if
down in a bunker huddling
everything from babies to frying pans and
buildings toppling over

He balances a tea tray on his head and the
sugar cubes leap in the air

If the earth were only in less of a hurry to
shake us off do you think?

And where could we go?

Is there a place of greater peacefulness?

Rollers on gravel tracks
make a noise like the night
getting out of itself through a very small
hole

And back into itself when we

open our eyes and find we’re in a
flutter of feathers

more alone than alone

longing to be alone with The Alone

____________

8/23/2006 (from In the Realm of Neither)