Breath

Incessant metronome of beep and hiss

That count of indrawn breaths

Mechanical tracker

Of this thing called life

Silence so deep

Between the beep and hiss

A wavy line to distract the eye

From gazing too long on unconscious form

Breaths synchronise

Father and son

I draw in and wait

For beeps permission to exhale

We wait you and I

Conscious and unconscious

Breathing in time

All that’s left of us

Somewhere between

This breath and the next

Between your breath and mine

Death crept in

So now we wait

Ragged symphony of breath

The spaces of rest grow longer

Between this breath and the next

The metronome of beeps

Slows

And spaces ……..grow

Where breath                 breathed