Jennifer K Sweeney

Heartbeat Sound Machine

What white quiet is this
room, unswum
air, the open  

pouring unto itself,
vista, horizon,
the on-and-on

your alarm cry
belts across?
Heart-in-a-box

we carry your static
your meadow your sweet
your looping tocks.

O hush to pulse, hear
flood-in-the-locks,
draw back to wave,

to water we keep
this plastic heart
in our pockets—

battery spun
shhh
of your single memory—

godsound held to ear
before air, self—
you fall in

to its blood-promise
rock
in the dark

lull
in the dark
by-and-by.

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Jennifer K. Sweeney is the author of four poetry collections: Foxlogic, Fireweed (Backwaters Press/Univ. of Nebraska), Little Spells, How to Live on Bread and Music, which received the James Laughlin Award, the Perugia Press Prize and a nomination for the Poets’ Prize, and Salt Memory. The collaborative chapbook, Dear Question, with L.I. Henley, will be published in winter 2024 from Glass Lyre Press.