Cone Of Silence

Written
1995

 Cone of Silence

Thee City sings its urban songs,

       horn honking, traffic sounds.

Busy noises ring through the day

       with tempo picking up

       and dropping.

Cocooned into a car, the sounds

       are dulled

       for conversational background.

I struggle to hear

       and understand

       in a language not my own.

I strain to find a word I know.

I listen with more intensity,

       clearly that repeated phrase

        must mean, “I think that.”

Peso, I know and try to tie

        that to some meaning.

The conversational sound,

        becomes faster and

       I am completely  lost.

Then I no longer hear the sounds

       of the city

       nor the sounds of language.

Meaning depravation dropped a cone of silence

       over my head freeing me of

       place and time responsibility.

 

 I drifted over boundaries of 

        road and city and into the magic

       castles built in my head.

Soaring hawks invite me to join their

       circling quest

       as silent as my cone

I looked at the passing new land as

       if I will soon have to try to

       recreate it in a great diorama,

The cone of silence was rudely broken

       by intrusive English,

        and the magic Cone of Silence was broken.

 I was  alone in my Cone of Silence

       left out by language

       now back to distressing frenzy,

I must remember where I left all that peace.

      

 

Notes
I rode in a car from Mexico City to Pueblo where Spanish was spoken so rapidly. I had no chance to catch any meaning. I zoned out as if I were doing yoga and had a wonderful trip. About hungry time the others in the car started to speak English and I came back to the world. It was a shame because that protective slience housed a wonderful world