Beat

Beat


A brown strip of leather, smoothed
on one side, cracked on the other
both from years of wear. Fold it,
in half, the cracked surfaces touching
your knuckles tight, the smooth leather
safe in your palm, the silver buckle in the other.
Snap the leather against itself. So loud
like the silence after words like kick, constrict--
the echo of that last syllable standing
in the back of your throat.