99poems/snapping

3:33p.m.
I put on some
lively laundry
music. Snapping
my fingers,
as I dance
down the hall
to the machine.
Something just
a bit flamenco,
with a hollow
sounding drum.
Hollow is something
I am trying to learn.
Not to be confused
with empty –
which I have
sometimes done,
filling it with
afternoon cookies,
or boring conversations.
Hollow
fosters
a percussive life,
the only life
worth living,
and the way
that life is
waiting for us
to notice
that it is.
A kind of syncopated
band,
hoping we’ll listen,
maybe toss
a quarter
in its hat.

6/14/99