Sound Pressure Level 30 Poem by Eli Spivakovsky

The stock market crashed on your head
in the 11th floor in the 1th rom where predictions are made
Butterflies only venture so far from the ground so who can justify a skyscraper?
And in the 11th room I've got a fever that comes from biting down on the themometer
and no one can ask you how you are in an anaechoic chamber
No background noise
no static
no white noise
sound pressure level 0
but your heart never skipped a beat
the chamber never phased you

Those deaf boys on the train
one with shimmer blond hair
a tilt of his head
and his friend was by his side like a beacon of light
they devoured a newspaper together
I wanted to know if it was better in the quiet.

Sound Pressure Level 5 - butterflies flapping
we can't hear them and they can't hear us
Sound Pressure Level 120 - a skyscraper being destroyed
Sound Pressure Level 30 - the average kiss

You breathed in and miked up the anechoic chamber
amplified silence on the 11th floor in the 11th room
And I've got a paper bag to breathe in
to distract from all the sounds I'm not hearing

Shimmering butterflies twirl and tumble to the ground
the sound of missing decibels
They fell and fell and fell