BIG BANG 3

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2004 by Daniels, Jim

This morning

traffic spaces itself out

with the random logic

of breaking waves

Last night I asked a young man

to turn down his music

the bass shaking

my windows and dishes

my concentration my heart

he was sitting on the steps

near his SUV with a woman

from the apartment building

and her young daughter

I didn't see them in the shade

I saw an empty black vehicle

vibrating the night off its hinges

He startled me, emerging

from shadow as I approached

I didn't understand how they could

sit so close nor how such a young man

could afford such an expensive vehicle

My wife thought it was coming

from an apartment, but I thought

it was a car. I was checking

so when I called the police

I could tell them what planet I was on

I've never made noise that loud

though maybe if I had hyper bass

I would've used it on occasion

when the world was a splatter or blur

This morning among the traffic waves

no sign of the SUV. Birds in the tree

out front squabbling over something.

So many languages I'll never know

I forgot to say he turned the music off

without a word. Not down, but off.

JIM DANIELS

Jim Daniels' most recent books are Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems, University of Wisconsin Press, and Detroit Tales, short fiction, Michigan State University Press, both published in 2003. He directs the Creative Writing Program at Carnegie Mellon University.