The drums –

So incessant –

Beat a tattoo

On my tympanum.

The drums,

Keeping time,

Unleashed

A primitive rhythm –

A rhythm

Of life and death –

The heart beat

Of dee dum – dee dum

And the funeral roll 

Of dum – dum – dum –

As a child,

I trembled

To hear the drums.

I clung

To my father,

In silent terror.

The drums beat

Into my heart,

Accelerated it;

Every throb was

Beating like a drum

My heart , 

Now a drum

With  a taut skin,

Beat and beat

Incessantly.

A terror of

Primitive order

Of life and death,

That seeped through

The childish instincts,

Until the drums slowed,

Into gradual stop.

The terror was appeased

And the tremors eased.