Leaky Timing Belt

It’s a wonder anyone survives long at all,
Even considering it’s never all that long.

Your future is meaningful, made from pure meaning,
Humming confection spun from implication,

And the implication is always that you must
Fix something, attend to something, before it breaks,

Before you break it, before it all breaks, before
You break. You spin your breaking waves between more breaks.

One hour spent out in the dark—crickets, wind, and stars,
Bare soles on the courtyard stones—quotes quite different poems.