A soft, indistinct sound

By Cameron Barnett
                made by a person      or group
of people speaking quietly
    all the glee
      swept up between decades    echoes of good times
                stuck       in hurricanes of laughter
           mistaken for small winds
               To make a low continuous sound
not every haunting is for horror     sometimes
                        it's just for company
A softly spoken    or almost inaudible     utterance
                        the book of my mother
     and the book of my father      open     face-to-face
    pages flipping past each other
                To express one's discontent about (someone
              or something) in a subdued manner
between who I am                  and who I want to be
              lies an earthquake
                I cannot hold
                    The quiet or subdued expression
of a particular feeling     by a group of people
     the redlining of my heart
        ≥
     the minstrelsy of property value
                To say something cautiously and discreetly
anywhere I go is an interracial space           a fun house
                                                          of mirrors
                                                            with all
                                                                the lights
                                                                     turned off
Booker T.'s hand
stuffed into a boxing glove
              A rumor
         beneath the Atlantic
                                                   lies a massive aquifer
of fresh water                                              find me here
    deep in all the water              you cannot see
                                                   To say something in a low
                                                                   soft
                                                          or indistinct voice
as much as there are
    seeds of truth
  as much as there is
      safe soil to hold them
    as much as I am
        my own sundown town
          A recurring sound   heard in the heart through a stethoscope
that is usually a sign      of disease         or damage
                 languid lips dragging

        over the chest
                 the cold cup of America 
            listening
 

Copyright Credit: Cameron Barnett, "A soft, indistinct sound" from Murmur.  Copyright © 2024 by Cameron Barnett.  Reprinted by permission of Autumn House Press.
Source: Murmur (Autumn House Press., 2024)