A poem from the heart

And the beat goes on

Disruption

Vicki Robin

July 2024

So this is it

This is the time

When time is spent

Extending the time

I am here.

My precious heart skipped a beat or two

A time or two

My strong, faithful beating heart

Caught it’s toe on a crack in the sidewalk

And caught its balance in a beat or two

and sauntered on.

I’d settled in for meditation

Gaze first on the far horizon

On the mountains held in the mottled gray sky

Gaze through the gauze of thoughts within

Feel the cozy heartbeat of my settled life.

And then

Close eyes

Deep breath

Exhale

Cough

Pound.

No wait

OK

Deep breath in

Exhale with a cough

A thud against my breastbone.

Again and again

And then

Reluctantly

Bundling up to take

My heart to the

Medical outpost

In my rural island home.

The walls of my life seem set and solid

The patterns grooved and comfortable

Wake, wash, cat, tea,

Meditate and write.

The kind of patterns that seem like the bones of the home I live in

But, in one stray beat,

I see

It’s all

Just wallpaper

The luminescent bubble of daily life

Burst by a random beat.