Naming the Sound that Took His Life

Ahmadullah.

Something like the whump of one

rotor blade, busting air

or jet afterburner caught

cupped in the hand

or cut short, a thunder clap

asphyxiating

its own wind.

Something like stillness in the mouth

or the spontaneous

combustion of leaves, a static

crackle of noise

that plumbs the deaf

eardrums like a sun

burst, blooming.

Then something like keening,

the awesome vowel of a mountain cave

calling and re-calling

the consonants of birds

dropped dead from a tree.