Ears Which Hear Not Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

My neighbour kept on bemoaning

The cost of the hearing aids

Voicing the suspicion

That the audiologist

Had made him believe

That one would do

And then made him pay for two

The simple logic was

'How would you feel

If you had sight only in one eye'

When he was asked to try the model

I walked him through the noisiest road

Asking him again and again

If he was hearing everything

And the volume was right

He still did not seem convinced

That one would not have been enough

Though I pointed out how fortunate he was

He could afford the trendiest

That he could easily tuck away from view

And be able to talk to his daughter

Living on the other side of the globe

Without shouting for all the world to hear -

How nice would it be

If I did not have to hear

The verbal darts I seemed to draw

The talk of the evil

That others were always up to

And had ears for nothing

But the shepherd's song

That took the cattle along.