Thomas Edison couldn’t believe he was deaf

He recorded sounds in wax, played them back,

Listened with his ear pressed to the metal parts

 

Beethoven took the legs off his piano

Set it on the floor and laid down

His ear to the wood, listening for music

 

Helen Keller felt the outside of a beehive

And the buzzing tickled her fingers

She demanded to know what they were saying

 

In the waiting room at the doctor’s office

I asked the man to repeat himself, and he did,

And I was still just as deaf.

 

When I went into the MRI machine, the

Vibrations went through me like language

Testing my ears, and why I couldn’t hear.