The beat changes

I walk this once familiar street
Follow the rhythm of my feet
As I feel the pulse, I feel the beat
Of the life that grows where people meet
But the beat changes

The beat changes
The beat may grow, or the beat may slow
But the beat changes

The beat changed between us
The beat of mine, the beat of yours
Asynchronous at the last
Each holding to the idea
The remnants of what once was
Reaching for the other holding them close
To feel the pulse
Hoping
But feeling the beat change

The beat changes
The beat may grow, or the beat may slow
But the beat changes

The beating I receive in the schoolyard has become passé
The regularity, the inevitability of life for the smart kid
Labelled a fag
In a semi rural town
The blows rain down as if upon another
Reaching my body but not my self
Not reaching me where my life pulses
Where my heart beats
Where the beat changes

The beat changes
The beat may grow, or the beat may slow
But the beat changes

The beat…
Change is inevitable
What was is not will be or even is
Intense this tense
Future present past
All part but never constant
Time an illusion measured by intellect
Felt as a fluidity
An hour can feel a lifetime
A lifetime at its end feel but a
Beat changing

The beat changes
The beat may grow, or the beat may slow
But the beat changes

The changing beat, the pulse of this once familiar street
To which I return after so long away
Has that slight discomfort of unfamiliarity
Of seeming lost in a world that once was home
Giving promise of future unpredicted
The excitement of getting to know a whole new world
All over again

think I've heard of it

From the air
The centre of Australia
Is all swirls
And ridges

Earthy tones
Brown, ochre
Black
But overall the heart
Is indeed
Red

Desolate and beautiful
Great swathes of only
Apparently
Barren wilderness
Open, natural
Harsh
And beyond our control

And yet man in his
Arrogance
Draws lines around
Sections
Of Nature’s whole
Divides it into
Pieces
Give names to the
Nameless reaches

Oft times they are named for
Those first brave or
Mad
Enough to face the
Wilderness
But more often as some
Honorarium
For one deemed
Worthy
Those who most likely
Had not set eye on a truly
Natural
Expanse of land