Untitled 10

The Active
Sounds
of History:

whispering

the stabilizing hum of an HVAC system
camera phone synthesized shutter sounds
“no flash photography, please”

whispering

the piercing cry of a bored and hungry child
footsteps squeaking on a polished stone floor
cryptic words and numbers wrapped in walkie-talkie crackle

whispering

the hissing, whining, and clicking of a heavy door
stifling a cough
“no touching”

a hush

then, whispering

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Untitled 9

In ruins
desiccated, no longer reaching or supporting
merely abandoned:
a dead branch, twisting
between the remains of two columns.
Beyond the rubble at their feet
the olive jar splayed out on the ground below
after a tumbling fall, ages ago
resting
in a hollow stasis
broken only by wind
and lengthening shadows.

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Untitled 8

Memory:
a moment
kept waiting
in the mind’s
recesses
until
like an artifact once lost
it is resurrected —
its dust discarded
its context commuted
displayed for an audience
of one.

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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A mixtape of remembered sounds 3

• Engraver on the street tapping a hammer into sheet metal [Cairo]
• Squeaking sprinkler head [Milwaukee]
• Film projector in the Power Plant gallery [Toronto]
• My own footsteps while walking alone in the Kom Al-Shaqoufa catacombs [Alexandria]
• Aging dog whimpering, sidewalk, 3am [Athens]
• Automated gondola [Karlsruhe]
• Creaking floor, gas chamber [Dachau]
• Exhaust fan near roses in a botanical garden [Ann Arbor]
• Clapping in the Dome Room [Long Beach]
• Breezes and birds [Black Hills]

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