Sound Skeleton—A Dream

Remember when they asked you which you preferred to lose,
sight or sound?

—

The bones of the middle ear, the cochlea, the malleus,
the smallest, hardest working bones of the body
coax air into noise. Ear bones as ear lens.
They see sound.

—

He fingered my hands,
a hearing aid in his eye socket.
I said listen to my collarbones, they speak
in rhyme. He circled my wrists, obscene
knobs ready to pop through skin. I see
your cracking, he said. I can hear
your frame.

—

Mud ribs cradle lungs. Fleshy organ pipes.
When I scream the bones resonate
like a tribal rattle.

Avert your ears.

Haleh Hatami