The Radio In My Head

i don’t know what real silence is. there is never an absence of sound because a brushy electronic white noise static hum is always going on in my head. it’s something i’ve gotten used to, and i hardly notice it most of the time– but i REALLY became aware of it during our last trip to jenny’s hometown in rural nebraska. her brother steve drove us out to a bridge one night that was miles away from everything. we got out of the truck to look at the moon and the stars, and jenny said “listen to the silence!” everyone got quiet. no one said anything for a minute, but i could still hear the sound of a paused cassette player with the volume all the way up.