Noise

NOISE

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.

—Jean Arp, Arp on Arp

Construction is ongoing, banging away next door.

Metal clangs on metal, a pump machine loudly whirs.

Chop saws, screaming spirits, slice steel bars.

Sledgehammers thud solidly, breaking apart concrete.

Gravel fills apertures, ears, shuffling downward inside.

Dust and cement puffs, dry, burning in the sun,

Waft by, gray fumes at the volcano’s edge.

Mixers pour concrete, molten dough, into wooden molds.

Workers, perched birds, fashion steel bars into cages.

Walls grow layer by layer like a multistory cake.

Doors and windows appear as rectangular frames.

Jutting into the light, the first steps of a staircase ascend.

Drying walls glisten, soon to be lacquered with smooth finishes.

Day by day a building rises out of rubble, transforming—

A lady fastening a glittery brooch, a gentleman adjusting a silk tie.

Originally published in IthacaLit (September 27, 2014)

Combo (1970) by Antonio Austria