Consolation Miracle

To My Left Ear Canal, Deformed at Birth

12 To My Left Ear Canal, Deformed at Birth Flitting like a coal bird in a kiddie pool in a blocked-off cul de sac, this is my heart questioning as dog whistles and quarantined ships do. Take my brain, how it fires its audibles to whatever deaf gondolier is in the blood, battering my Bridge of Sighs. Plunging into fleshy shores or piercing old wood gates as you round the wound and write it off, you might as well be Saint Mark, blame graverobbers and God for losing your hair, your hearing. All canals end at this tomb, my head, flooded each year. Can’t you appreciate this thump mosaic of doors, and how closely Venice sounds to Virginia coaling up its sepulcher? You are a door cracked open to the ocean far from Venice. And if ever two were meant to be earful of the world, it is you and I. Please let this silence turn negotiable. 13 Listening is punishment, and people are being drowned, so block this ear and sing. Block and sing. Block off the canal and sing like a dirty bird. 14 ...