"I Turned Them Down" by Johny W

They were loud,

Loud enough to be heard a mile away.

They screamed.

They bellowed.

They shook the rafters.

They rattled the windows and

Rolled the nails.

They made everyone in town put their

Hands over their ears and

Roll in pain.  

They drowned out the bird songs, the baby cries, 

The big trucks on the wet highway,

The lawn mowers, the leaf blowers,

The Harley Davidsons, the second line trumpets, the Grateful Dead with both drummers,

The horns that brought down the walls of Jericho,

The wails of a hundred sirens,

The screams of ten thousand banshees.

And with a breath,

I turned them down.