Pulse

Poetry inspired by my pulse

Photo by Joshua Chehov on Unsplash

I’ve felt my heartbeat through two fingers
placed on the wrist

Counting ten beats, stretching
forever in audible thumps

Ten beats with the body at ease.
Warm-blooded fingers, red and pasty white

Ten beats under pressure, pulsing
up from my skin. Flashing lights!

The blip of the EKG steady.
The tips of my fingers changing

Colors in rhythm with the beat. A perpetual
motion machine, good for a century

at best. Ten beats
to zero out the world

Each beat a terrible span to endure.
Until they slow

I press my fingers harder into my wrist
each beat now a boom

Ten beats and in between,
a long thought

Then the count is done.