tiny ears
the hyperactive parts of neuro-diverging
you can’t hear that? my dad recently explained his in a courtroom having to lean over and tell the other side you need to be more discreet i can hear every word after ménière’s it got even crazier like hearing the water trickle between the walls. it is disarming to hear the saw from seven blocks away or the lightbulbs hum, the sound is unbearable and the word, fluorescent is violent. i describe seeing a bad house as tasting it for hours. and i shake at just the thought of the word curd. I have left rooms and friendships over fragrance. elevators. the woosh. vertigo. but a sound machine, the ocean, petrichor. just the thought. is to breathe. I moved across country from a description in a book and a kids movie. only now do these details make any sense. there is an actual store, in the place i now call home, that sells non violent lightbulbs and displays the entire original Star Wars Lego series at least once a year; i easily and with pride call this city home.
