March 2, 2016

SURROUND  SOUNDS  

Sometimes we’re sitting there at a concert -

surrounded by people and live music. We
hear an orchestra or a rock or a folk singer

on stage - making music that fills the air - and
it costs lots of money for the concert tickets.

Sometimes we’re sitting there at home or

anywhere - surrounded by sounds coming

from everywhere and it doesn’t cost  us a
penny to listen to a whole orchestra of all

kinds of sounds. We just have to listen.

Sometimes it’s a bowling ball hitting 9 pins -

almost 10 - and we hear the scream from the

sender down the other end of the bowling alley.

Sometimes its birds chirping and singing on

a lawn of April rain - with worms, everywhere.

Or there’s a dog barking and someone

should have told her, “Nobody’s home yet!”

Sometimes it’s an ambulance or fire engines

rushing and running to a call - in rush hour -

“Uh oh!” Or it’s loose manhole cover 300 feet

up the street from our bedroom window - and

we only hear it from 2 or 3 in the morning.

Sometimes we’re visiting a nursing home;

now that’s the place of differing sounds.

A determined old man with a grey aluminum

walker is navigating a tile floor - scrape mixing

with the sound of the shuffle  of slippers -

along with the voiced sounds of aches and

pain and the grunts and groans of aging.

Bees, cicadas, let us know they are making

their rounds - but how come moths and

squirrels don’t make any sounds - so too our

brother or sister. I haven’t heard from either of

them lately. Are they making any sounds?

Andy Costello, Reflections 2016