during the day it beats with steadiness,
confidence and certainty pumping through
a labyrinth of crimson tunnels.
it is held prisoner by the confines of my steel rib cage.
light is shed upon the rows of ivory bones.
a fortress more solid than steel,
silences its most mysterious and insatiable, desires.
to protect it from losing its rhythm.
to protect its fragile existence.

but at night rhythm is gone.
darkness synonymous with freedom.
it beats erratically, hungrily.
yearning for something to break through
the rows of oppressive ivory.
something to fill the spaces
where stale rhythm and order used to be.
until every now and then it remembers
to murmur imperceptibly and gently.
grateful for the night...

yet cautious not to wake its captor.