At last I found some time to sit down and write today
Transmit my thoughts into my daily poem
It was hard to concentrate
Due to the construction work outside the condo
Drilling and hammering
Workers dangling from the high rise roof on cradles
Those steel suspension cables look ever so thin
The construction workers do not seem worried at all
Strung up so high in the wind and rain
Jack hammering away at the concrete walls
Like giant woodpeckers
Searching for hidden grubs
Concrete dust clouds rolled by my tightly closed window
I grabbed the Bose headphones
They cut out almost all the construction noice
Peace at last
Well not quite
There was a steady distant thumping in my ears
Slow and rhythmical
That cannot be a construction woodpecker
It suddenly dawned on me
It was my own heartbeat
Presumably amplified by the Bose headphones
I closed my eyes to listen closely
With a few deep breaths
And some concentrated bio feedback
I was able to slow down my heartbeat
I checked my resting pulse
It was a steady 56 bmp
These headphones are great for a relaxing meditation
Even in the middle of all this contstruction mayhem
But suddenly my ears exploded
Rock music was blasting away
The headphones had somehow connected to Spotify on my phone
My heart rate jumped to racy 96 bpm
Led Zeppelin was however quite entertaining
Bringing back memories of my head banging youth
And it totally drowned out the giant woodpeckers outside
So I left the music on loud
Meditation time was over
Rock on
Slow heartbeats are for stoned hippies
I wonder how fast is the heartbeat of a giant woodpecker