Tinnitus

Publication

The Stony Thursday Book No. 12 (ed. Paddy Bushe), Limerick, Ireland. 23 October 2013.

Description

“Tinnitus” was published in the annual Limerick city poetry anthology The Stony Thursday Book. Paddy Bushe was the graceful editor.

I read the poem at the launch event at the Belltable Arts Centre. This was part of the Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival.

Tinnitus

When you speak
I focus my attention
on the minute bones vibrating
inside my head.
Malleus, incus, stapes:
they grow like coral
in the salted sea.

I can hear the waves crashing
on the tympanic membrane.
Every ninth one
that little bit louder.

A tiny fish swims
the semicircular canals,
ray-finned and spined,
bedecked in cryptic colours.

It sings when it finds the right note.