Listless Rhythm
By John Bieberich
She’d argue she’s a free thinker while speaking
purely in conspiracy. Whenever anyone agrees with her,
she quickly changes her argument. Any
understandable things about her she covers up. She wears
coloured contacts that swap by the day, dyed hair, makeup that
perfectly conceals with a baseless foundation.
The rest of her face is almost always masked, threatened,
or scarved— hidden from any thought of answers.
When she performs, she fades in and
out like a lost melody, making her own time.
It’s hard to tell when she’s asleep
or awake. You’ve asked if her heart beats
regularly, I say even her organs beat
like a jazz bass, moving in and
out of tempo with a lazy grace. Conformity
is outside her nature.
“Listless Rhythm” is part of my (unfinished) collection “People in Poems,” where I’ve been trying to analyze how to show someone’s personality and physical characteristics in a poetic manner leaving things between the lines. I’ve been working on trying to get a physical image of a character from a poetic piece primarily focused on the abstract.
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