On Acoustics

People are less likely to help each other
in loud cities, the ecologist said.

To describe a silence, identify first
what it’s not: the parade marching

beyond the window, the ocean’s dull fanfare.
Close up, we feel the shudders of sound—

the voice in a lover’s chest, elephant rumbles
too low for the human ear. It scares me to consider

how much I miss. In the library,
a man holds up a sign:

FREE ORIGAMI LESSONS.

Here are my troubles,
please fold them neatly—

a paper crane, a lotus flower. The doe
must glance up from the stream if she wishes

to hear what lurks in shadow.
I watch the parade

pass on the street below as if it were
my life. What can it be for.



Reprinted from A Great Dark House. Copyright © 2022 by Lauren Aliza Green.