Poetry: Annoying Noises

By stinkyzen

August 16, 2019

 You know what I mean, all those ugly sounds
 we hear each day, that make us hiss and flinch,
 and set our teeth on edge: those piercing tones
 that permeate our lives. So, you might think
 we’d choose a mellow, pleasant resonance,
 but no— we pick the most annoying pitch.
  
 We suffer every day: why don’t we pitch
 a fit, and outlaw these obnoxious sounds?
 The ponderous, dopplering resonance
 of air horns; the shuddering bang and flinch
 of garbage trucks, so loud that we can’t think;
 the yowl of sirens— all ubiquitous tones.
  
 These are noises that break glass; nasty tones
 that pierce our eardrums with their evil pitch;
 the garbled game-boy harmonies we think
 are up-to-date; the cheap, distorted sounds
 of cell phones at the movies— we all flinch,
 but somehow still allow this resonance.
  
 Suppose it causes cancer? Resonance
 that erodes tooth enamel: high-tech tones
 that go dah-dee-dah till there’s no flinch
 left! I dare you to find a loathsome pitch
 more penetrating than the squeal that sounds
 at gas station doors! So, what do you think?
  
 What stubborn, stupid reason makes us think
 that we’ll adapt to sonic resonance
 that curdles milk, that hurts our ears, that sounds
 like a goosed banshee? We could choose soft tones
 instead; a comforting, amiable pitch
 to make us calm— instead, we twitch and flinch.
  
 Imagine a harmonious and flinch-
 free world, where there’s a peaceful place to think,
 uninterrupted— the melodious pitch
 of birdsong; the relaxing resonance
 of wind-chimes in a breeze; kind, grateful tones.
 We’d be refreshed each time we heard such sounds.
  
 But no! our sounds just prove we like to flinch
 and cringe at toxic tones, and I still think
 our resonance is foul— we’re wayoff-pitch.

Author’s note: This is a poem form called a “sestina,” and it’s a blast to write!

A sestina follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the initial six end-words of the first stanza through the remaining five six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line envoi.