Earplugs

Robert Ronnow
The Imaginary i

Earplugs

Sweet silence!
late in life
I discover earplugs
my wife’s pastel plugs
that fill the ear canal
by compressing for insertion
and expanding once in place

No lawnmowers, no leafblowers
wood chippers or persistent phoebes
an occasional cardinal, bluejay, crow
water to the thirsty traveler
morphine to the cancer
better than knee surgery
or a negotiated end to the war

One mauve one sepia
one good cop one bad cop
if not one way, then another
humility v. perspicacity
one year of sleeping in my clothes
one day the sun is hot
one night the moon is full

Such silence is so sweet
I might try blindness too
like Homer, Borges, Milton
just kidding, should there be a god listening
the veil of life is thin
if one doesn’t believe in mystery
or accepts the rules entirely

One green one brown
two leaves sleep-touching
then a breeze!
the day I left life behind
hitchhiking as the sun descends
morning air cold and clear
one powerful with eternity, one blinding with intensity

The freedom of summer gone
one more season and one more after that
he lived with one eye after that
in a mind there is apocalypse
no one can hear it
but one day you die
and this is the ideal silence you sought

One elk in aspen
two police officers
one buys it between the eyes
the other in the back
the suffering of one citizen
sometimes makes the sudden murder of another
with simple joy men may give up desiring to be touched

Silence of winter
New York City
nature’s lunacy
cities make a distant muted sound
hidden away in the woods
a leaf tip for a cocoon
how much tinnitus can you handle

Graceful as silence
sailing through the ferns and understory
my present v. my future existence
perfect acts, actual and factual
the national debate
garrulous, querulous
speech, none, you can’t sum it up in one more metaphor

Censor crop shorten and silence
no tv!, no pity
first light, green tea
remain still as on the subway
perforce to fight
exercise, stretch, heal if possible
and prepare for a powerful anesthesia