Hearing the World

as a boy he was a rebel undersized and underfed he used guerrilla tactics to defend himself

now a man, he is tall and strong, copper red hair usually cropped to show his clean handsome face to clients who measure his worth by the quality of ink and paper he manufactures

the business wears on him a crushing pairs of tongs on his mind, which was always as sensitive as a handmade violin notes resonating

he could always feel the top and the bottom, the sense of a person or a group came to him in an instant and the feelings were strong enough for him to withdraw having never acquired the mental frame to cope with the ugly noises he could hear in an acoustical gestalt

life pained him he worked like the devil surviving, each day with his wife's embrace