With Hidden Noise, by Jenene Ravesloot

With Hidden Noise, by Marcel Duchamp, (USA, b. France). 1916.

With Hidden Noise

Two  brass   plates,  engraved  on  the  top  and  bottom  with
English  and French words, and in between these, a small ball
of twine that hides a noise inside of it when it is shaken. All of
these  joined by four screws. If  you are inclined, supply  your
own  noise  because  you can’t  shake  this ball  of  twine. The
museum  won’t allow it.  So wear a grimace.  Begin to scream.
A scream will do it.  Don’t  save it for a private performance in
the shower.  Scream  if you are inclined.  Maybe you’ll cause a
fine  ruckus and  a  kind of  wonder.  The  museum  will  never
forgive you, but your audience  might  think  you’re part of the
display;  an  art  object.  You  scream.  It  just  won’t  work.  No
matter how much you  scream.  You can’t  shake them up. You
shut up and attempt to stuff your scream into that small ball of
twine,  with  a   noise  already  hidden  inside  of   it,  which   is
sandwiched between two brass plates joined by four  screws.
You can’t get near it.  It’s impossible.  Is it true that a  scream is
still a scream  even  if you can’t  hear it? Things  get  balled  up.
Things get hidden.  Things forget  to make a noise, or a noise is
ignored. Supply your  own  noise, or  keep  it  hidden.  No  one
will listen.

Jenene Ravesloot

Jenene Ravesloot has written five books of poetry. She has published in After Hours Press, Sad Girl Review, DuPage Valley Review, the Caravel Literary Arts Journal, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Packingtown Review, The Miscreant, Exact Change Only, THIS Literary Magazine, and other online journals, print journals, chapbooks, and anthologies. Jenene is a member of The Poets’ Club of Chicago, the Illinois State Poetry Society, and Poets & Patrons. She has received two Pushcart Prize nominations in 2018.