4 a.m. Drip - Electric Bard featuring Ned Loh

Four a.m. along the leaden conduit sleeve A swollen droplet gathers on the threaded brass Suspended weight above the zinc receptacle Pacing the minutes in the unlit corridor Thirty drops precede the radiator thump Sixty herald the delivery van across the curb Ultramarine ink bleeds across the sodden card Etching bruised rings into the cardboard rim The latch bites deep into the painted jamb The keyhole chokes upon a wad of lint Every telephone sequence scraped off from the pad Every dispatch tucked inside the cedar drawer The Cistern Tallies Every Pulse Inside The Dark A Heavy Droplet Carves A Ledger In The Stone Scrape Down The Enamel Tiles Before The Whistle Screams Nobody Traces Where The Rescuer Has Gone A slate scum floats across the standing reservoir The bucket catches what the perished gasket wept Two decades of wet linen slung along the rope Refusing drying in the windowless crypt He squares the cotton towel to four exact edges Aligning every border with the mortar line The Cistern Tallies Every Pulse Inside The Dark A Heavy Droplet Carves A Ledger In The Stone Scrape Down The Enamel Tiles Before The Whistle Screams Nobody Traces Where The Rescuer Has Gone Two drops register the clinic ward Four drops tally the dispatch left behind Six drops bury the signet in the drawer Eight drops scour the floor with lye Ten drops sever the wire along the line The Cistern Tallies Every Pulse Inside The Dark A Heavy Droplet Carves A Ledger In The Stone Scrape Down The Enamel Tiles Before The Whistle Screams Nobody Traces Where The Rescuer Has Gone The basin surfeits at the copper weir The drain consumes each documented mark Clear the record Trip the catch Nothing left to report at four a.m.