By Dave Malone
The presence of noise . . .
in a non-linear system
makes the system respond better.
—Andrew Smart
My ears ring with the music
of yesterday. Static
in the cochlea
converting sound waves into
electricity
my brain loves.
But it’s the noise, the relic
from last week’s coffee
making
that still zings in tympanic
rhythm, my body’s
percussion
in abdomen and ear. There’s no
anti-aging technique,
no way back.
I hear inside the noise,
without foisting
any sound
elsewhere; here is my becoming;
here is my swimming
with Mississippi’s
paddlefish; here is my song
electrified in the floating
marine plankton.
Here is my ear divining,
chiming, finding, ascending.
Dave Malone is a poet and screenwriter from the Missouri Ozarks. His poems have appeared in Boudin, Slant, and Bellevue Literary Review. He is an avid gardener, long-distance runner, and sometimes quilter. He likes to read poems on TikTok: @poetmalone.