Relentless sound, relentlessly pounds —
throbbing throughout the town.
They crank the volume up so loud;
I turn it right back down.

But songs sung in quiet, they grind
on the sour side of mind.
Some lump of cells tries hard to find
the sound below the line.

And when the sound yields to silence,
my brain asks where it went,
and how I sit astride the fence
about rowdy or silent?