KJ2

A Second Short Piece by K.J., a Michigan prisoner

Can a sound have a personality?

Can sound have the power to reduce from the height of selfhood to a programmed cog?…a careless note…an offbeat theme that tells no story and has no melody with one iota of originality.

Listen to the random shouts of miniature identities:

“Man, was I highhhhh!! Oh man was I highhhhh!! Like dig baby, I don’t give a fuck what it is I have to do. I’m going to get it on, for what it’s worth!!I’m gonna stay high”

The desperation of the plea: “Fuck it!” is a sound not to be heard by men whose source of identity is doing, nor uttered by men who can hear deeply the sound of “I can!” “I am!” “I’ll always be!”

The range of a sound has no limit: It seeps into the soul, bracing like an anthem…exhilarating like a personal theme song…profound, like Coltrane’s sax…immense, like the swelling of a vocalized emotional commitment…sensuous, like night drums attuned to the rhythm of heartbeats…triumphant, like the drama of an era ceasing decision.

But sounds have a source, a point of origin that is moved to sound off. And here, the motivation to move to the point of making a statement is an ever-increasing attempt to be reassured that even the simplest sound can invoke the power, the waves of force, to make itself be heard.