“Get your earphones out”,
My aunt would always chastise me,
For having the round things in my ears,
Clinging to my lobes like a life-line,
Wearing them as a statement of truth,
Using them as weapons of sound-
Against other sounds,
Blocking out the world and all its voices.
And then I did:
I took them out,
Ready to relate; wanting to listen,
Waiting to hear the sounds;
Hoping for the world’s voices,
But not getting anything real or true,
Stuck only with the sights,
Of people just like I was,
With their earphones in.
“Get your earphones out”,
Someone ought to say,
They are all so detached,
Standing together, but being apart,
Looking at faces and seeing nothing,
Walking past, always walking past,
Speaking but not saying a thing.
Never really saying a damn thing.
“Get your earphones out”,
I will be the one to shout it,
To make you hear the other sounds,
Not just the ones you know,
To feel the life around you,
That you forget to find,
It’s bad: the whole world is blocked out,
And has blocked the whole world out,
Reverse it: turn up the volume on life,
When you get your earphones out.