Today's poem is by Jennifer K. Sweeney

Heartbeat Sound Machine
       

What white quiet is this
room, unswum
air, the open

pouring unto itself,
vista, horizon,
the on-and-on

your alarm cry
belts across?
Heart-in-a-box

we carry your static
your meadow your sweet
your looping tocks.

O hush to pulse, hear
flood-in-the-locks,
draw back to wave,

to water we keep
this plastic heart
in our pockets—

battery spun
shhh
of your single memory—

godsound held to ear
before air, self—
you fall in

to its blood-promise
rock
in the dark

lull
in the dark
by-and-by.

Copyright © 2025 Jennifer K. Sweeney All rights reserved
from The Shore
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission