Beetle in the Box - Admiral Fallow
Hold your tongue,
the unwilling and the safe
Make your mark in your own tiny way
Your own miniature firework display for one
Fear of facing the shadow on the shore
Tied in knots and hung out on the backdoor
The boy-done-good thoughts
Of valour and the all for one
It's the beetle in the box
that shakes in your hands
And it's formed out of feelings
I don't understand
They're mapped in the gaps
and the spaces between
The worry of bearing, the
ghost in the machine
I eat your words and you
mark my mistakes
We set the dictionary up to fail
The work of poets is a vapour
We exhale, it's gone
Fleeting fondness is a
flicker in your frown
Spilling out in adjectives and nouns
A mess of letters once it's chewed
And swallowed down all gone
It's the beetle in the box
that shakes in your hands
And it's formed out of feelings
I don't understand
They're mapped in the gaps
and the spaces between
The worry of bearing the
ghost in the machine
How do you feel pain?
(Tremors through the floor)
How do you hear sound?
(Tapping on the walls)
I wish I could feel it all
It's the beetle in the box that
shakes in your hands
And it's formed out of feelings
I don't understand
They're mapped in the gaps and
the spaces between
The worry of bearing,
the ghost in the machine
in the machine
in the machine
in the machine