The television shouts
The radio blares
I walk outside
Billboards, posters, and signs.
They shout their opinions
Ordering me to listen
I can’t look away.
I can’t shut my ears.
It’s written in the human code,
We listen.
These opinions and orders and offers,
I absorb it all.
I don’t mean to but it stays with me.
Stuck in my head.
I turn.
I whisper.
It grows in my throat.
Like a lion in my larynx.
I growl.
It becomes a quick bark of a shout but it is still heard down the block.
‘You’re not the boss of me!’
It is left ringing in the ears of everyone down the street.