Kicks Copyright © Richard J Whiting

Before you consider yourself God;
Before the thunder-twins
Of music and engine
Clear the streets like a cyclone
Whose vacuum you think
Will pull in the girls;
Before your right foot falls
Think on this;

Those parents who rise every day
To face-slapping memories
Which camp in every crevice of their lives;
Who find littering their hard-won sleep
Those Hammer House dreams
Which punctuate insomnia.

Before that right foot falls;
Think of the hushed footsteps
Across unused birthdays;
The University unattended,
Of love unfulfilled,
Children unborn;
And a silence of screams.

Before you stand
In the chilling shadow of a wake;
Everyone drowned by the dark cloak
Of tragedy,
Think on;

Before that right foot falls
Beware
Lest it kicks you,

Or someone else,

Where it really hurts.