THE WILD ONCE
Oh, who hasn’t known inside,
when young, his heartbeat as a guide,
a lightning flash that’s forking
from wrist to throat, a noble
savage falling from the skies
but just before it hits the ground
caught in a net of ribs.
Like a birthday child
what now crawls off
like a scared spider monkey
once stood among us,
in an ever more
cramped space.
And it scarcely fills
a wrist
anymore –
what once beat time,
called for a body
like a tautly-stretched
drum.
