Moodus Noises

Abstract

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• Moodus Noises
• David Epstein

Machemoodus, Native American term meaning "the great noise of the earth"; thus, the town named Moodus, Connecticut, near where a geological feature has given rise to spontaneous chthonic sounds.

All solutions have long since taken their graves.An elemental howl in the dark: behind your spectral dam,angst accumulates. In southeastern Connecticut

you traipse miles of forest, gliding the contours,tracing altitude: stalking the vertiginous plane of white pine,visiting empty mobile homes, retreating to trees,

watching opossums and thinking howthe cost of self-awareness brings with itincongruence. You reach into your ghost's throat and,

constricting your erstwhile larynx, produce a sound.Such battering of the air has been likenedto a pair of empty steel tanks attempting union,

or to the distant keening of the earth itself. Once,a couple lingered in the woods, contemplating post-high school ennui,while their hands plied each other's corporeal liens.

In the gray pre-dawn, along the beaten track of your wanderings,you pursued what passes now for mystery,as if, after centuries, you still had it in you to care. [End Page 112]

David Epstein West Hartford, Connecticut Copyright © 2024 Johns Hopkins University Press ...