I cannot hear.
Sound has lost its crispness.
Articulated consonants
have merged into blurred murmurings.

The loss was not sudden.
No cataclysmic happening
but rather a gentle deterioration
of a faculty, once taken for granted.

Normal conversation, once a joy,
has become a struggle.
Repartee, chit chat, a little banter
is no more.

The quality of sound
once reverberated and filled spaces;
now I have no spaces – just tinnitus,
constantly grinding away.

To be sightless is to be aware,
with other senses sharpened;
but deafness leads to
introspection, loneliness and deep despair.

The half blind wear their glasses
and look so very wise.
The deaf man, with his hearing aid,
dithers.
                                          

I should know.


                    ~