Thursday, August 12, 2010

Deathwatch Beetle


Your elbows are thick with rust
and stiff, as if you'd been
a tennis pro for way too long.

Every night when people are asleep
you can hear the creaks and groans
of all the joints in your body

and weird gurgles in the pipes. Sometimes
banging. The furnace still works
but the radiators leak

and don't heat up the way they used to.
Pressure fluctuates and there are
random surges of hot and cold water.

Visible rust and hidden corrosion,
flow constricted, backing up in eddies
and the furnace ticking over in the basement—

sound they used to call
the deathwatch beetle.


--image courtesy of Magpie Tales
Collection available! Knocking from Inside

16 comments:

Harvee said...

Ominous, but excellent use of the image for your theme of rust and decay. Well done.

Arian Tejano said...

love the smooth transition of the images to the deathwatch beetle. nicely weaved altogether.

Jinksy said...

weird gurgles in the pipes

Just like in my house!How well you captured all the causes of noise from this imaginary beetle.

Tumblewords: said...

Inside and out - excellent metaphor...

Anonymous said...

really creative take on the image, and so true in many ways.

Elizabeth

Vinay Leo R. said...

Powerful this..! Good strong poem.. flowed well..

Tess Kincaid said...

I've got those weird gurgles.

Helen said...

Clever, clever writing .... I am inspired to listen more closely to my body sounds.

Kristen Haskell said...

Very true indeed.

Claudia said...

..weird gurgles in the pipe...
.. like how you paint this picture with your words of a time i'm a bit afraid of...

Suz said...

I think the sound of old pipes is somehow comforting

Lyn said...

Chilling..the deathwatch beetle..
creaking night sounds, feels like me..original!!

C.M. Jackson said...

creaky and creapy---I can hear the beetle--best c

ninotaziz said...

The words just flow deliciously creating a lasting impression!

Everyday Goddess said...

this is great, i love the analogies, very excellent Mag!

Brian Miller said...

ha. you paint quite the pucture and leave us with a rather cilling finale...nice mag!