Filling the World with Sound - Sept 26 2026

Filling the World with Sound

Sept 26 2026

I wonder if the dog I hear in the distance

is barking at the echo

he's made himself?

Trapped

in a recursive loop

until his bark gives out.

But at least he doesn't shrink

from expressing himself.

Full-throated, he is fully present,

contained in a circumscribed world

of him

his listener

and their life-and-death feud.

While I keep to myself,

speaking softly

if at all.

Not so much humble, as fearful

 --  because the smaller the target

the harder to hit.

Although I too am caught in a loop

I've made myself,

an echochamber

of agreeable voices

that validate me.

Not to mention

enjoying the sound of my own.

Am I as territorial

as that excitable dog?

Saliva bubbling from its lips

strings of drool dribbling down,

rising up on 2 hind legs

then springing stiffly

on 4 extended ones

flinging flecks of spit?

Like a boxer, who taunts his opponent

by bouncing lightly on the mat,

then beckons

with an upturned fist

as if to say just try me!

Hardly, I admit.

I'm no watchdog, or protector

to-the-last-drop-of-blood,

no fighter

or brawler

at the drop-of-a-glove.

I don't even speak up,

habitually biting my tongue

for fear of giving offence.

More mouse than dog,

I scurry along the baseboards

in a grey blur

I hope goes unnoticed,

emitting rapid-fire squeaks

too high for human ears.

So while the dog prowls its borders

and fills the world with sound

I shrink into mine,

protected by silence

hunkered down out of sight.

One of my dogs was barking incessantly the other day. It’s relatively isolated where I live, so I generally let them: a barking dog won’t bother anyone, and I like to let them have their fun. But this was getting annoying, and when it appeared she was barking at her own echo, I told her to stop. Then wondered if I hadn’t, just how long would she have carried on?!

Today, the neighbour’s dog was going at it, frustrated she couldn’t join my girls who were chasing balls in the lake. I thought how free they must feel compared to me:  while I keep my head down and am acutely aware of making noise that could disturb others, dogs are little solipsists who haven’t any concern about the world outside themselves. They put their whole being into it. There is no restraint. 

 . . .How enviable!