Because the right to sight gives more than deafness cost,
our two eyes are two wise to seek after listening lost.
In ear-shot’s short scope, so little is exhibited
while vision’s vast hard is light-year unlimited.
For, see that rainbow? Easily.
And hear its colors? Hardly!
Think: Ears (opened or not) stay staidly still;
eyes, more mobile, wander about at will.
Lobes are lazy things, inactive and unfree;
lids blink and bulge within a bigger boundary.
And consider those silent symbolic side-long things,
whether dually paired or singly im-paired; ear-rings.
On the double organs they decorate,
it’s sight, not sound they celebrate,
strictly to be seen
an eye-sensible scene
for optical pleasure
View, too, that visual verb “video”
means “I see” -
as in Caesar’s veni vidi
followed fast by victory.
Look also on that banner waving its shouts above,
calling out, quiet, for citizen honor and love.
But wait! Demands it of us aurality?
No; it asks us instead, Oh say, can you see?
But you still haven’t it,
that tri-tinted flag,
nor heard its lyric anthem,
not till you’ve seen it,
with musical eyes
when sung out loud
by silent singer Bragg.
Marceau, master of mime, limits the labor of lips;
so too, Panara’s poetry as into your soul it slips.
So stay, star, as you are, a wink your only word.
And you, children: you’re supposed to be unheard.
- Sal Parlato, Jr.