Music And A Murder

• Pranikaa Gulati, Grade -
• Poetry
• 2022

I’ve never heard your heartbeat. I’ve imagined it-
It’s safe rhythm, it’s beautiful pulse, a quiet, constant sort of sound,
And maybe if I ever heard it I’d tell it how I imagined it’s echo, it’s echo,
In my heartbeat, and my echo in yours, and maybe I’d tell it how
When the world was too quiet I clung to the echo of your heartbeat
(your gorgeous heartbeat, the one I haven’t heard) like hope, like
It could save me, and how when the world was too loud (and the world
always is) I felt it throbbing with every tap of my finger, throbbing
With every clenched muscle, every restless (I avoid words like desperate)
Movement. But then again, I think you know I get silent when I’m scared.
So I’ve offered you my fear. This doesn’t have to be a love poem, does it?
When I think 'heartbeat' I think 'life'
And if life is nothing more
Than love, then love, this life without
Your heartbeat
Will always leave me breathless.