Nov 21, 2017 Original Poetry
Listen!
©November 21st, 2017
By Vijaya Sundaram
Electric lights hum like crazed gnats.
All around me, the sense of quiet
Seems fractured by hum, hiss, whine, rumble.
When we say we long for silence,
Do we really mean it?
Will I be able to bear it?
One day, I will hear the beating of my heart,
The thrum of pulse, and flow of impulse.
I will hear all the colours parting
Like sunlit hair in the wind, colours
Humming their way into blood and bone.
I will see all the sounds around me,
And paint them into shapes
With my lips and lashes,
With my nose, my fingers, my toes.
I shall trace the outline of all faces
In the air around me, outlines of light,
While electricity hums eerily,
Unceasingly, annoying me through the night.
The lights in the kitchen hang low
Like ripe fruit, bursting with noise,
But I shall pluck them, and bite into them,
Tracing outlines of you, and you, and you.
I shall trace your outlines in wonder,
Gazing at you all, becoming you.
For you are beautiful, and so are you.
Wrinkled and smooth, smiling and frowning,
Canny and uncanny, innocent and experienced.
All beautiful. To compare is to kill.
Turn out the lights! Cut the sound.
Weave shapes out of darkness, limned
In starlight. I am transient, dimming
Through eternity, a mere shape leaving behind
Shadows of shapes, gnats crowding the night-sky.
Below, the electric lights hum and flicker.
Lick this air. Taste it! Let it slip down your throat.
Turn out the lights! Cut the sound.
Can you hear the beating of your heart?
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Tags: #ElectricHum, #Listening, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram