Take My Pulse

Mindfulness

So much quicker getting dressed these days
one pair of trousers, one set of shoes
you wear them all the time.

If you look at your clothes
too hard you see the cracking,
your soles pinched by pavements walked
to no end.

You mustn’t think about
what happens when they need replacing
perhaps someone will look down
from the kind of life you wanted.

Give you their boots, suit or coat,
still one slip away from joining you,
one hand away from helping you out
of mindfulness in dark moments.

Until the blue flares slice the air
behind the bins, an alley at the back
the paramedic takes your pulse,
your missing heartbeats, your emptied life.