I slept at the top of the house,
And could hear before sleep
That valve-amp, two-step sound
Of the bass guitar, boom-bom it went
A warm heart pulsing inside
The brass rib-cage of trombone,
Trumpet, sax, that bass drifting in
And out of hearing range
A stray breeze masking it
A street and a half away,
That quickstep two note boom-bom,
The heartbeat of the dancers
In the summer night all in step,
While precious time ran out
Across the maple floor
Before the last dance and silence.
Patrick Kehoe's latest book of poems is Places to Sleep (Salmon Poetry, 2018). Recent work will feature in the forthcoming Wexford anthology, Caesura.
