I kept the TV on low just to hear the room breathe back Cheap fan wobbling on the desk a spoon in the sink, a cracked phone case You came in with your baggy coat smelling like damp denim and train brakes Sat on the floor by the radiator said, "Don’t make me talk too straight" So I let the static take the edge off let it blur the hard parts out Your voice came through like a basement band all tremble, no clean shout Tympanotomy cut a little door in me for the hum, for the drone for the buzz under the teeth Tympanotomy let the feedback come and go If I can’t say it plain let the room say it for me Late bus hissed past the window blue light leaking through the blinds You were tracing rings on a coffee ring like you could read the whole night My old amp with the torn mesh cloth coughed up that soft wall of sound We stood there half in the spill of it like we’d both been lowered down And the floor kept shaking under us from the washing machine next door You laughed once, quick and nervous like you’d heard that noise before Tympanotomy cut a little door in me for the hum, for the drone for the buzz under the teeth Tympanotomy let the feedback come and go If I can’t say it plain let the room say it for me Outside, somebody slams a car door inside, the whole place bends I keep one hand on the speaker cloth waiting for the song to end But it doesn’t end, it just thins out and comes back thick Like a bruise you forget is there until you press it Tympanotomy cut a little door in me for the hum, for the drone for the buzz under the teeth Tympanotomy let the feedback come and go If I can’t say it plain let the room say it for me Keep it low keep it close let the walls hold the noise
