Beetle in the Box

Hold your tongue the unwilling and the safe

Make your mark in your own tiny way

Your own miniature firework display for one

Fear of facing the shadow on the shore

Tied in knots and hung out on the backdoor

The 'boy-done-good' thoughts of valour and the all for one

It's the beetle in the box that shakes in your hands

And it's formed out of feelings that I don't understand

They're mapped in the gaps and the spaces between

The worry of bearing the ghost in the machine

I eat your words and you mark my mistakes

We set the dictionary up to fail

The work of poets is a vapour: we exhale - it's gone

Fleeting fondness is a flicker in your frown

Spilling out in adjectives and nouns

A mess of letters once it's chewed and swallowed down all gone

It's the beetle in the box that shakes in your hands

And it's formed out of feelings that I don't understand

They're mapped in the gaps and the spaces between

The worry of bearing the ghost in the machine

How do you feel pain?

(Tremors through the floor)

How do you hear sound?

(Tapping on the walls)

I wish I could feel it all

It's the beetle in the box that shakes in your hands

And it's formed out of feelings that I don't understand

They're mapped in the gaps and the spaces between

The worry of bearing the ghost in the machine