Enough to wake

the deepest sleeper

though still out there 
by day I’m more

attentive lying down

by dark the strain
of stillness in

between each strike

a load to bear
as if some bone inside

were close to fracture

could snap in kinship
hearing that slap

in the face for a house

made of give and take
trying to settle but

it’s always been there

in every place whether 
brick or timber

fibre cement

with feet of clay 
heave or subsidence

thermal movement

each master stroke
a shock irregular

as clockwork

sound of one hand
it’s going nowhere

this cosmic joker

child with cap-gun
clueless what for

vast Christmas cracker

that lacks a token
somebody’s pulling apart