AUTOTOMY

The noise never stops. Even in the middle of the night, motor cycles will blare by the apartment, and since it’s just a concrete block, it traps sound, amplifies it. Sometimes the dogs bark all night, fighting over street territory, until one yelps and runs away. Sometimes there are squealing pigs out on the empty back lot, awaiting slaughter and roasting for someone’s party. Before sunrise, the roosters add their cacophony to the mix. There are children and a baby next door. When the baby cries, his nanny takes him into the hall outside our door. Her singing echoes in the hall. So, I keep a pair of earplugs ready at all times. It narrows the noise down to the sound of my beating heart. And though I can still feel the pressure thumps of my fingertips on the keyboard, I feel safer inside these walls of silence.