Malefic Echoes

As I lay getting an echocardiogram

(Breathe. Breathe--Hold!)

I watched the clock

(Exhale. Hold.)

And reflected on the malefic nature

(Tiny breath. Exhale. Hold!)

Saturn and Mars.

(Good. Breathe.)

The stable slowness of the hour

(Exhale. Hold. Just a little bit longer--)

and march of minutes carrying the black hands onward incrementally

(Breathe. Exhale. Hold. Small breath. Good. Exhale. Hold. )

as the red raced relentlessly forward, indifferent to the staccato of my lungs obscuring what drives me.

(Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Exhale. Hm. Tiny breath--Hold!)

Control and inward action only seen on the ultrasound as agitation in the muscles at such external stillness strained for a motion to match the tension.

(Hold!)

In this, the malefic makes things happen

(Breathe. Exhale. Hold. Good.)

but always at a cost.

(Breathe)