Dying Noises
Eleanor Moore
The whisper-hum of air, ever-present,
Carries the too-bright memory
Of an old man in a bed bent upright,
A bruise under his nose,
Bone thin wrists pecked with scabs,
And bright yellow grippy-socks
On feet too weak to hold him.
The noise is all-encompassing
And it avalanches into the cough
That wracks cancer-ridden lungs
That used to support
Full-bellied laughs
Often heard across the house.
That laugh has been absent for months.
The only words now spoken do not belong in this place,
But in stark white rooms with loudly shining lights.
Abruptly, there is silence.
At least the kind
That tangles with the noise
Of an oxygen machine;
The kind that is that much harder
To interrupt; the kind that restricts
The breathing of even those whose lungs are free.
The cycle repeats.
Constant whisper-thrum,
Pain-drenched coughs,
Overwhelming silence.
One day this cycle will end
And the brown-tiled floor
Stained with tears,
Slumped sobs,
And pace marks,
Will be bleached clean.
The cycle will end
And new sounds and silences
Will entrance and berate
Half-filled hearts
Until eventually the whisper-hum
Is quieted from its place
In the background of each memory
Of the happily tall
Old man
Who adored
The salty waves
Which marked his arrival.
Ailia Reber is a Phoenix native and is currently attending ASU with a major in Drawing and Painting. She continues to explore different mediums and forms of art through her classes at ASU. For example, she is being introduced to many different types of print in her printmaking class. Her main mediums, however, are graphite and charcoal. Her work focuses on expressing complex emotions and experiences through the forms of herself and others.
Eleanor Moore is a freshman at P.C. She hopes one day to inspire others with her writing, as she has been inspired. Some of Eleanor’s favorite pieces of art are Studio Ghibli films (all of them), Avatar: The Last Airbender, the movie A Monster in Paris, Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s art and architecture, any song by Hozier or Gregory Alan Isakov, and everything her brother makes. Her best friend is her biggest inspiration and platonic soulmate, and Eleanor would happily run away with her to be old crones in the woods who only talk to each other and their ten cats, two goats, and the murder of crows that adopted them.
RISE 