Not the Noise

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                     of Terrance Hayes

I do miss the quiet [BEAT] Don’t you?

A form of rhythm like the first sex

Like an echo disrobed [BEAT] twelve bar

Conviction the sick-eyed gap-

Mouthed bass [BEAT] Not the noise

But an arrangement of derangements

Sometimes a tune is born [BEAT] of outrage

Sometimes the noise gives up

Its code [BEAT] and the wind’s scuttle

Makes the reeds in the body vibrate