April Anthology 2016: crowd-music

A shrill small yip,

An old tenor laugh,

Two women’s coffee-bar conversation

Rise above the rumble,

The thrum,

The hive-buzz and

Crowd-music.

A low, drawling growl

Of work and politics

Makes strange harmony

With a young family,

Television fancies, or theology.

I am silent in the choir,

Too distracted not to hear,

Too confused to more than listen.

But I can listen

To the cadence,

Group noise roar,

Spoken-word themes,

Falling and twining and rising.