Welcome back for Zoeglossia’s Poem of the Week series curated this month by Raymond Antrobus.
March 22, 2021
Audio
Ear Trumpet, possibly used during a period of mourning, Europe, 1850-1910
- Science Museum Group Collection
By Lisa Kelly
View the full text below.
Ear Trumpet, possibly used during a period of mourning, Europe, 1850-1910
- Science Museum Group Collection
1.
In life she listened to me. Or at least tried.
Out of kindness, I raised my voice
to make her understand. Now I have died,
my dumb widow must mourn. My choice
of ear trumpet will be held to her deaf ear
with its ornate black lace collar and bow.
I warned on my death bed, Nothing to fear
if you occupy your hand with this gift I bestow.
She paled when I raised the spectre of the Workhouse,
reminded the sweet simpleton of the Institute for the Deaf.
Speech is a divine spark. My mute grey mouse
must listen for the ghost of her better half.
2.
Today, I stand naked as a sylph dressed in air.
He is under the ground and I float above his grave.
I frolic in front of a glass with the trumpet to my ear.
Its black lace bow looks dandy – this I will save,
rip it from its hard shaft and pin it to my curls.
The black lace collar will be food for the moths.
Look now at this denuded amplifying cone, its bare shell.
Let me fill it with cream to spill on mourning cloth,
or plant it in the heap of fresh earth that covers his bones,
cut a single white trumpet flower to place in its O.
It will bind him to his voice, as the north wind groans.
My hands are free to sign in their natural flow.
A photo of a woman's head and upper body in front of a mic. She is wearing a black blazer, has blonde hair and is looking to her left, about to speak.
Lisa Kelly is a poet with single sided deafness. Her first collection A Map Towards Fluency was published by Carcanet in 2019, and her pamphlet From the IKEA Back Catalogue is forthcoming from New Walk Editions in 2021. She is learning British Sign Language at level 6 and is co-editing an anthology of poetry and short fiction by British Deaf writers for Arachne Press in 2021.