THE DEATH OF SILENCE

Across the city's tarmac and cracked glass
the sirens hunt aggressors and aggressed;
the mind's assaulted and the ear oppressed
by Dolby shrieks, migraines of sound that pass
beyond the shaken tympanum in brass
or amplified guitar while, buzzing like
a wasp possessed, the revving motorbike
completes a fanfare of acoustic farce.

Completes? I spoke too soon, for now we hear
the drumming of the helicopter's screw.
And when the overstimulated ear
brings tinitus to silence, starts anew
the dissonance, then pain competes with fear;
and life is charged with discord through and through.