The Drum of a Day

All we have is the heartbeat

played on the drum of this day.

We are the hands on the skin,

and this hollow space

that swells with the rising sun,

pregnant with possibility.

Here resonates the call

to work and play and —

thrumming within each beat —

the sun’s farewell,

the night into which we naked return.

(Title from a poem by Antal, an 8th-century poet and the only woman among the Twelve Alvars of South Indian Vishnu worship)

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Mary Camille Thomas

Mary Camille Thomas is a native of Santa Cruz who is grateful to make her home on the California coast once more after living internationally and on the road. She studied comparative literature at UC Davis and received a master’s degree in library science from UCLA, which gave her a way to earn a living while making a life among books. Her poetry and essays have appeared in the Monk in the World Guest Post Series, Moving Force Journal, Presence, Porter Gulch Review, Second Wind, Sisters Singing, and The New Story, and she has completed a novel called What Lies Buried about a man reckoning with his family’s Nazi past. View all posts by Mary Camille Thomas

4 thoughts on “The Drum of a Day”

Thank you, Mary, for making the ordinary day, sublime.

On Sat, Aug 31, 2019 at 9:41 AM The Kingdom of Enough wrote:

> Mary Camille Thomas posted: “All we have is the heartbeat played on the > drum of this day. We are the hands on the skin, and this hollow space that > swells with the rising sun, pregnant with possibility. Here resonates the > call to work and play and — thrumming within each” >

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