A Deaf Refrain

How do you play a melody deep inside the words to sing each letter off the page and free them like a bird How do you write the lyrics to a mute and silent song that lives inside the spaces where true music’s never gone How do you play a rhapsody of couplets in your mind releasing subject-verbs to be forever to unwind How do you pen a chorus heard with what the verse has shown and give each note a deaf refrain —within a single poem (The New Room: May, 2022)