The Sound of Mucus

The house is alive

With the sound of mucus, 

The echoing hacks

Of throats that won’t clear.

The snot fills our lungs

With the sound of mucus,

My ears are so clogged

Yet the coughs, I hear.

(Ears are clogged, yet I hear.)

My son drips two bright yellow cords of the thickest goo

From his nose to his chin.

(To his chin.)

A jackhammer, buzz saw, and ten drum kits

Couldn’t make such a din.

He breathes like his chest is a bone cage full

Of eight live rattlesnakes.

(Rattlesnakes.)

He barks through the night,

And the coughing keeps us all awake.

I humidify,

Prop up heads on pillows. 

My husband’s stuffed nose

Causes him to snore.

Our sleep is destroyed 

By the sound of mucus, 

And I’ll sneeze once more. 

~Talia Argondezzi

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