20160323 (can you hear me now?)

I couldn't adjust image size. The pile driver is what looks like a white missile attached to the black steel plate (the pile) which is being driven into the sand to keep the Shoreway from slipping away.

Kah-thump! Kah-thump! Kah-thump!

Since seven AM every day now for

At least the last week the sound of 

Progress on the Shoreway embankment

Project resounds across the ‘hood.

Gives us something to commiserate

With strangers encountered on walks.

I’ve posted pix on my Facebook 

Page of the pile drivers working

But no picture captures the noise 

Of electrically (?) driven hammers 

Plunging  massive steel slabs 

Another two-inches into the soft

West side Cleveland sand. We 

Liken it to Chinese water torture—

Not waterboarding, which induces

The sensation of drowning— but

The constant drip, drip, drip of

Water leaking slowly onto your

Forehead while you are strapped

To a board in a darkened room.

We fortunately are untethered and

Can find some location like the 

Library or the supermarket to

Attenuate the repeating aural 

Assault at least for a while. And 

They do stop periodically to

Mount the hammering device

To an adjoining slab which gives

Us a break. And they stop for

The night and weekends. Across

The street (Detroit and Shoreway)

Are the construction folks who

Are building another middle-rise

Condominia who have to hear

It full-blast. They are protected

So to muffle the sounds of their

Own tools. I would think there’s

A market for some enterprising

Soul—construction helmets

Equipped to play music but allow

Nearby workers or bosses to 

Communicate for safety. I wish

This were true especially when

Home contractors set up one

Ghetto-blaster to paint a house

Or make repairs. I will make, and often

Have made, my displeasure known

To many a work crew in the past.

(Might be why contractors never

Call me back.) I’m all for Freedom

Of Hearing. Anybody can listen to

Any type of music (railroad sounds

If they want) at any level

Whatsoever—I am not their

Ears’ keeper. But I am just as

Adamant about our Freedom from

Hearing whatever they play  

Loudly. I, and numerous others,

Would love to listen to the birds

Chirping or children’s shouts in

The park rather than be exposed

Ear-burstingly to their musical

Selection as they cruise around my

Block (or the next block in some 

Cases). It all has to do with an

Under-appreciated civic treasure—

Freedom from nuisance. To wit,

Don’t pour your waste into our

Stream, or noise into our hearing,

Or smoke into our air—particularly

In elevators or restaurants. Jean,

Once when preggers with Andy,

Turned to vomit on a guy 

Smoking a stogie in an elevator

(go, Jeannie-babes, go) but that

Was more a case of an eye for

An eye. Like picking up trash

Recently hurled out of a car

At a stoplight and replacing it

In the open rear window. But

Construction noise can’t be 

Moved. Kah-thump! Kah-thump!

Kah-thump!

c. J.S.Manista, 2016