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