On his hearing impairment

1928

When Ah wis ten a neibour's bairn,
clocked on mi knee, seis mi wavy
black heir and clim up mi arm.
Mither gee her a comb til stroke mi herr.
Nex thing the bairn shives the pointed end
intil mi lift lug. A gallowered, bowted
lek a grewhound from a trap.
Mither didnae tak me till the doactor's.


2008

Traffic hastens beyond his window -
form, shape, colour -
                                                mute
to him as distant shooting stars.
And when the wind and rain connive
to test the grain of door and window frame
he goes to earth, ear pressed into
a bank of feathers. Euphony of cricket chirps
only solace in a forest of prickly pine needles.
And in a room of many voices
it's as if a beehive lid's been lifted,
sounds choir a garbled mass
and he is trying to net some, never sure
                                                from
                       sounds
                                    come


Ray Givans

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