I
Sound waves that travel through the air
Have trouble penetrating the surface of water.
Words are muffled and obscured
The way watercolors run and are diluted;
The colors inaudible:
A deaf man’s synesthesia.
But when spoken in water
Waves undulate, carrying the sound,
A maternal burden.
Touch her stomach and you can feel it kick.
The ocean reaches a depth of 6.8 miles
And most of the species living there are still undiscovered.
II
Isn’t it funny how everything you ever told me
Can be expressed in sound waves?
Frequencies easily duplicated by a computer;
Tracing every thought.
As a child I stenciled with beta waves,
Plotting the amplitude and wavelength –
Dreams are scribbled mountains
We can’t climb.