"Rhythmic Variations"
Dale Benson
Department of English
University of Otago
New Zealand
boromir!dale@elrond.otago.ac.nz
Deep South v.1 n.3 (Spring, 1995)
Copyright (c) 1995 by Dale Benson, all rights reserved. This text may
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Rhythmic Variations
When I cannot sleep
I listen
to rhythms
of breathing
and heartbeat
Rhythmic variations:
chamber music
dark
with cello
Pleasure vibrates
slowly like an ocean
or quickly like a cat
Pain contends
against
the cadence
of marshalled breathing
the drumming
of ordered heartbeat
In a regiment
commanded by rhythms
I hear
soldier march -- on the double -- now!
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