THE SONG I MEAN

THE SONG I MEAN

by Ozzy Annoa

There is a song I have been trying to write down for eleven years.

It was sung to me when I was small, by the eldest female of the pod, whose name I will not attempt here as it would take three pages and still be wrong. She sang it in the shallows at a particular time of year. I believe it was a comfort song. I believe it was also a joke. This is not a contradiction where she came from.

Here is my first attempt, from 2014:

A low, cycling hum beneath which several voices braid and unbraid in a pattern that suggests repetition without quite achieving it. Occasional sharp percussion. The whole thing slightly warmer in register than you would expect. Lasts approximately as long as it needs to.

This is accurate and completely useless.

Here is my second attempt, 2017, after two semesters of music theory I took specifically for this purpose:

[the page contained a staff notation here. I removed it. It was embarrassing.]

Here is my third attempt, which is the sounds themselves, or close to them, which is to say not close at all:

The following is one pass. There is no fixed tempo. The capitals are louder, not faster. The pauses are where they are.

eeEEee-wuhWUHwuh-tktktktk-mmmMMMMmmm-eeee-tk-wuh-eeEEEeee-wuh-WUHWUH-tktk-mmMMmm-eeee-wuhwuh-TKTKTKTKTK-mmmm-eeEEee-wuh-tk-mmmMMMMMMmm-eeee-eeee-wuhWUH-tktktk-MMMMmmmm-eeEEEEee-wuh-wuh-WUH-tktktktktktk-mmm-eeee-EEEEE-wuhwuh-tk-MMMmmmMMM-eeee-wuh-TKTKTK-mmmm-eeEEee-wuhWUHWUHwuh-tktk-mmMMmm-eeeeEEEE-wuh-tk-tk-tk-mmmMMMMmm-eeee-WUH-tktktktktktk-mmm-eeEEEee-wuh-WUHWUH-tktk-MMMMmmm-eeee-eeEEee-wuh-tk-mmmm-EEEEE-wuhwuh-TKTKTKTK-mmMMMMmm-eeee-wuh-WUH-tktk-mmmMMmm-eeEEee-eeee-wuhwuhwuh-TKTKTKTKTKTK-mmm-MMMMmm-eeee-EEEEE-wuh-tk-tk-mmmm-eeEEEEee-WUH-WUHWUH-tktktk-mmMMMMmm-eeee-wuh-TKTKTK-mmmm-eeEEee

She would find this funny. She would also find it sad. This is not a contradiction either.

I have one more attempt left in me before I accept that the song lives where it lives and I visit it there, which I do, frequently, just below the surface, eyes open, completely still.

I have not written that attempt yet.

When I do I will know it is wrong before the ink dries.

FORECAST: MOSTLY UNCERTAIN WITH A CHANCE OF MEANING

FORECAST: MOSTLY UNCERTAIN WITH A CHANCE OF MEANING

by Leonid Tchah

I have been saving weather reports for thirty years. Not for the weather. For the syntax. This is what they say.

a found poem, assembled from public forecasts

Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise mostly sunny.

Isolated thunderstorms likely after midnight.

Confidence is low.

Areas of dense fog. Otherwise, not much going on.

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2am.

Hazardous conditions possible.

Winds could occasionally gust over 60 miles per hour.

Some storms may be severe.

The air does not care what you had planned.

Locally dense fog in the morning, then again

not much going on.

Confidence remains low.

This is the only honest literature left.

— L. Tchah