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