You Can See the Silence
Allyson Whipple
It's still too hot
for the neighbors
to walk their dogs.
It's just late enough
for the children
to have gone to bed.
And on Sunday
nobody becomes
a raucous
poolside drunk.
I can't take much more
than the air
conditioner hum.
I've been driven from
the bedroom of my
musician, who never
stops playing or
listening. Raw
notes emanate
all night long.
I'm tempted
to step outside.
But this is Texas
where the stars
won't cool you down.
This is Texas, where summer
heat makes gossip
rise like dough.
This is Texas
where neighbors read
your business
from your shadow.
It's still too hot
for the neighbors
to walk their dogs.
It's just late enough
for the children
to have gone to bed.
And on Sunday
nobody becomes
a raucous
poolside drunk.
I can't take much more
than the air
conditioner hum.
I've been driven from
the bedroom of my
musician, who never
stops playing or
listening. Raw
notes emanate
all night long.
I'm tempted
to step outside.
But this is Texas
where the stars
won't cool you down.
This is Texas, where summer
heat makes gossip
rise like dough.
This is Texas
where neighbors read
your business
from your shadow.
Listen to Allyson read her poem here:
Working notes
This poem was inspired by Kurt Heinzelman’s “The Window Poem” exercise featured in Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry. The exercise involves sitting meditatively by a window and composing a series of pieces. Written in the middle of a chronic heat wave, the stifling climate couldn’t help but accentuate some of my other frustrations I felt with my adoptive state. I rarely write love poems to either people or places, because even the things that I love can be a source of ambivalence. Heinzelman’s prompt provided the perfect inspiration to illustrate these frustrations when I was otherwise feeling stifled.
About the author
Allyson Whipple is a poet based out of Austin, Texas. Her writing has previously appeared in the 2012 Texas Poetry Calendar, Young American Poets, The Cleveland Review, Every Day Poets, and Southern Women’s Review. You can read more about her work at http://allysonmwhipple.wordpress.com/.
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.