Loud

My brother is screaming,
Laughing,
Tortured under my mother's fingers.
She is laughing too,
Easily counteracting his foolish attempts
At escaping the 'tickle monster'.

My cat is meowing.
He's deafening,
Shouting for his food
But it's only 4:30 so he'll have to wait an eternity.

The window is open,
And the sound of trucks
Thundering past on their rubber and iron wheels
Is a constant background noise,
Sometimes broken by an especially loud car
With an ambitious driver
Racing past to impress people he doesn't know.

The TV is on
And the screams of the expendable characters
Shown in the first five minutes
Ring loudly
And echo in my head.

I try to strategically retreat,
But my Mum calls me back and foils my plan.
She calls me back,
Back into the lounge,
Where everything's too LOUD
And piercing
And makes me want to scream.

But I can't scream.

I can't leave.

So I put my headphones on
And replace the sound with something I picked,
Which makes it a tiny bit more bearable.