only i can pronounce
and it keeps screaming
back at me in old voices
and fatal strokes of
dead birds calling out

two times the pitch
sounds only the dead can dance to
and it goes on
note after note
diminishing the sanity
and wiping out my thoughts

                         and now

even though
these vocal chords
currently feel like
crumpled papers
& deserted alleys,


the screeching won’t decease.