ZEROS AND ONES

Zeros and ones swarm outside their overcrowded hives.

Some can be found in tree branches;

their humdrum buzz carried away on the wind.

Some can be found in the open eaves of old houses;

their telltale drone passing through attic doors.

Some can be found in old books and newspapers,

broadcast live on large and small screens, or

recorded on discs and hurled into space.

Some cluster in restless minds;

set upon ears like ringing bells

or summer-night insect cries.

Zeros and ones flood river banks and ocean beaches;

surge over flood-gates, dams, walls, and barriers;

seep under doors and through broken windows;

soak all porous things and rust away thin metals. 

Some travel in air waves;

Others make their way along cables and wires.

Some cover mountains, ridges, and trenches like

ocean waters rising higher and higher.

Some pour into restless minds;

Paint scenes of day and night

with bold electrical strokes of lightning hues and dark shadows.

Zeros and ones scramble messages, turn into static,

break apart and scatter into seeds like scraps of an alphabet.

Some divide themselves into two bits

where there was one bit and divide again.

Multitudes of them sing, vibrate like strings;

cover old nouns, blank pages, and hollow spaces.

Some gild all surfaces with gold leaf;

trap and suffocate with thin non-porous shells.

Some coat restless minds. 

Day by day, honey combs ooze zeros and ones.

Colony collapse disorder prevails.  Bees die off. 

©cmheuer, 9/2017