Tuesday 25 September 2012

The noise


There was an insistent hum in the ear

not the drum, although it was a snare, a kind of repetitive sneer

something you couldn’t quite hear,

but which was surely audible enough to cause a stir in the room,

a shifting from side to side, a redistribution of the weight

we carry daily, and take with us to our beds,

something the springs won’t unload,

and no amount of cotton can swaddle

no bud can unpick or portion out in frequencies

that a human can handle, a sound like pips

squeaking in their pith

or imaginary hooves drumming out the day

for a choir of roosting crows.