The Sounds of non-Silence

I know what one o'clock in the morning sounds like in my 'hood. It sounds like this,and it's a sound no one wants to hear. It started with the horrible sounds of a car horn in my dreams. It just wouldn't stop. That noise will efficiently wake any one out of deep sleep, and it was successful last night. Then I hear the unmistakable sounds of crackling fire. For some one who has some hearing loss, how can I manage to hear that? So, I jumped out of bed to be sure it isn't one of our cars who's battery has gone wonky and open the front door to this scene. It had just begun and there wasn't a fire truck there yet, but this car belonged to the neighbor 3 doors down. At that time the neighbor across the street was running to the owner's house to rouse them from sleep, then they came out and then another neighbor came out with a fire extinguisher, but went back inside when he realized it would do no good. This was a small pickup truck and the fire seemed to be in the bed of the truck, not in the battery area under the hood. All very perplexing. After the helicopter circled a bit and the fire truck put the flames out, the tow truck came to haul the remains away. The tow truck was the loudest of all noises last night. The fire truck didn't use the sirens and was very quiet for a fire truck, but the tow truck can't moved without the "beep beep beep" that seems to follow every inch the tires moved. As the tow truck was leaving, the Husband came home. He always misses the good stuff.

It was hours before I got back to sleep.

I have a great friend who gave me this song, for those who know the song, you can sing along:

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision loudly eeking
Alarmed my dreams while I was sleeping.

And the fire,
That burst-ed into flame,
Did remain,
And was the sound of non-silence.
"Fool!" said I. "Did you not know,
Fires like a cancer grow?
Take up your hose and start to douse it out;
Forget the fact that it is cold and damp."

And the sirens
That should have, did not yell;
Not one bell.
They were the sounds of silence.

And in the naked light it came
A mighty tow truck toward the flame,
Which soon became a wispy whirl of smoke,
We stood around and tried hard not to choke.
And the grunts and the beeps of the towster were louder than the fire truck's roar.
Story o'er.

Such were the sounds of non-silence.