Prerna Bakshi

I CAN HEAR YOU

Listen to Audio Version read by Jill Khoury.

I can hear you
when you say the first time.
I can hear you
when you assume how I might have missed it.
I can hear you
when you say the second time.
I can hear you
when you start to speak loud at the top of your lungs.
I can hear you
when you start to move your lips super slowly.
I can hear you
when you begin to get irritated.
I can hear you
when you take a deep breath,
shake your head in frustration.
I can hear you
when you start to say something,
leave off midway.
I can hear you
when you say it would require too much effort.
I can hear you
when you do not speak to me directly,
but in third person,
with others,
even when I'm around.

I can hear you
more often than you think.
Even without
my hearing aid.
I can hear you well
better than you would expect.

Prerna Bakshi is a sociolinguist, writer and scholar of Indian origin, currently based in Macao. Her poetry has been published, or is forthcoming, in Linden Avenue Literary Journal, Indiana Voice Journal, Red Fez, Muse India, Postcolonial Text, Theory in Action, Hysteria, Misfit magazine, Grey Sparrow Journal, Asahi Shimbun (Japanese Daily Newspaper), Your One Phone Call | Poetry with a knife edge!, Bottle rockets, Kabul Press, Silver Birch Press, Wilderness House Literary Review, A Quiet Courage, Praxis magazine, Poetry Pacific and elsewhere. She tweets at: @bprerna.