Already more sounds in the world than we can hear more frequencies
more attack more positive feedback more hammer and stirrup and so for all the senses’ potential
to stifle scent and crowd the optic nerve so here we go into the future with nothing you made
and nothing you thought you could catch no LED no registration no dials
unmarked polyphony of radii boxed up for future radio
*
no one listens to reason alone it gets lost in the middle
the top of the woofer the background voice demands
the planetary holes in cones in holes as if you could talk back to geysers
repurpose the steam the scavenged and the holes in walls the heaps
or spread the bottom-heavy music for the shipping containers that turn the globe around
*
so put up your pinna your needles and hear take notes
how much do the later nations diverge which are yours
the tenements tarps compartments the fake wood the polymer the corrugated tin
vibrating sympathetically piling on
or holding everything in keeping up their own time
*
but the voice of the crowds isn’t yours
it repeats it’s rude it steps all over itself
it blows its top “it zigs and zags” corrodes
or stands up rickety mortarless it depends
on who has been able to stack how long can they stay
*
so turn away go back to fixing what you can fix
as for the unassigned styles the extra amplitudes the corners out of sight
what are they blaring or blending what crescendo or coda or catenary tone
what do they make to cut or amplify
the systems absent wires present words
William Cordova: Machu Picchu after Dark
By Stephen Burt | 1 March 2017