The radio melodies
from vehicles stuck in traffic jams.
The aluminium bowls of beggars
Striking glass.
The ceaseless honking and
Motor engines sputtering to life.
Footsteps and metal doors.
Glass colliding and shattering.
Words spoken, written, imagined.
Hammers on nails, cranes lifting.
Message alerts on cellphones,
utensils falling to the floor.
The gentle rustle of a leaf
The neighbourhood dog barking.
Someone next door rearranging furniture.
The cold monotony of an electrocardiogram.
Some mourning the dead.
Some rejoicing at a child’s birth.
At dawn the dust
being swept off the streets.