A BEAUTIFUL DREAM OF TOTAL SILENCE ❋ Tom Snarsky

I’m looking for a
Word

Like “speculation”
But for listening

Something immemorially old
But still technology

To flow “through the ears
From an alien stream”

To calm by receiving and
Recoiling in equal measure

To be semelfactive but servile
In the fever of isotopes

How long until
I have to sandblast this word

Off the guardrails and
Swingsets and rivulets

Until I give it to someone from
Whom I will not get it back

Not theft only
A forgetful aperture a

Specter of pauses
Held in kind by the presence

Of the victim