City of Noise
by Michael Romani

For our ears there is no escape
Not from the bustling sounds
Of our shared landscape
The omnipresent din that surrounds

This may seem benign and endearing
But is noise pollution that we are bearing
Causing damage that is irreparable 
It is a harm that is almost incomparable

The ill effects suffered on personal autonomy
As pleasing sounds vanish and with these harmony
This assertion against harmonic violence
Goes well beyond the fight for silence

A loss of sleep exasperates a lack of concentration
As the constant flow of 60 decibels afflicts nations
And the human threshold is too often exceeded
By the urban sounds through which we are defeated

This subjective fight for aesthete moralism
Often spills over into conflicting antagonism
Over and about the soundscape of modernity
The elite have sought quietude for over a century

Overtime this has come to change urban geography
As the suburbs promised oases of tranquility
Now as in full cycle, the urban becomes gentrified
And unwanted sounds have become more rarified 

A little noise has begun to be made
By those who are unabashed and unafraid
In their struggle to remove this sonic urban blight
And, in so doing, making modern life more right

(c) February 23, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved