“In a silent room, a hiss.
The sss slithers
through trampled fields
of felled hair cells,
snakes through hands
cupped over ears,
surfs undulant churns
of Marpac Dohms.
Tympanic sibilance transmutes rest
into tolerance,
mattresses into sonic pinboards,
beds of hissing nails,
electric impulses leaking,
sisses within floorboards.
Missed consonants obscure gist,
sense rendered senseless—
an empty yes in response,
please rephrase, say twice.
Brushes on snare.
Ambient masks smother, shroud
significance,
isolate listener within whispers,
within susurrus shush,
woosh sense into absence:
this hiss, a séance of noise,
in a silent room.
Stephen May is a writer based in Connecticut. His work has appeared in Belt Magazine, Rust + Moth, A Portrait of New England, and elsewhere.