James Tate

Audio Player



Sensitive Ears

It’s a tiny noise
like that of a eyeliner being applied
like a twenty-year-old smell coming back
to haunt you in a dream
it’s the new house
it must be the old house
only this time it enters
through the ears
what a strange odor!
like an entire New Year’s Eve Party
shoved down a laundry chute
like waking up from an automobile accident
twenty years older!
and I keep sleeping in the basement
to get away from it
I’m in the treetops
listening to it circle
and I hear a mule puff its last sigh
I can’t shut off this wheezing
there’s a noise crouched under that leaf
I’m a flea with a thousand microphones
for eyes.