Low Voltage Hum - Electric Bard

Green diode. Bottom right corner. Don't look up. You sit across the kitchen table with your fingers laced I focus on the coffee ring that hasn't been erased The amplifier in the parlor hums a sixty-cycle drone A steady little frequency to leave the nerves alone You start a sentence with my name, I study the veneer Counting seventeen scratches where the varnish isn't clear If I maintain the gaze upon the brass screw in the chair I can pretend the conversation isn't hanging in the air A swallowed syllable, a throat cleared twice My cowardice is cheaper than a sack of river ice The refrigerator compressor shudders to a stop Leaving only heavy silence for the awkward word to drop Keep The Frequency Humming Low Beneath The Tongue Leave The Bitter Sentences Unfinished And Unsung Stare Directly At The Screw, Stare Into The Grain Anything To Dodge The Direct Reckoning Of Pain A yellow hornet crawls along the outer windowpane Trapped between the cedar frame and yesterday's dried rain You ask me if I hear you, and I nod without a sound Fixating on a nickel rolling sideways on the ground My jaw is clamped together like an iron bench vise Weighing up the penalty of offering advice The floorboards creak beneath your shoes, you lean across the space I turn my head toward the stove to keep a blank face The sixty-cycle hum is getting louder in the ear A protective little shield against the things I cannot hear Say something. Say anything at all. Tell her that the fault is yours. My tongue weighs ninety pounds. Look at the diode. Just look at the green light. Keep The Frequency Humming Low Beneath The Tongue Leave The Bitter Sentences Unfinished And Unsung Stare Directly At The Screw, Stare Into The Grain Anything To Dodge The Direct Reckoning Of Pain The tea is bleak.