The clapping hands
(cannon fire)
thousands of them
battering his skull –
sharp sickening shocks –
all the boy can do –
scream.
Mouth gaping
fingers clawing
at temples.
Fifteen years pass.
He hears music in a great city.
He’s changed.
He watches.
Listens.
The instruments
build into white noise
inside –
fevered cathedrals.
Delicate wombs.
He knows it is
a tower of sound
where he would live
in Prayer
to beauty.
The violent discord
of this world.
C.M. Crockford is a writer with credits in Neologism Poetry Journal, Oddball Magazine, Vastarien, and Toho Journal Online among others. He is on the autistic spectrum. He lives in Philadelphia with his partner Julia.