Matthew R. Callies

Turn It Loud Until It Becomes Air

We solder our voices into borrowed amps until they spark, we turn it loud

Boots on scuffed linoleum keep time with the truth we can’t be told, we turn it loud

 

Basement posters peel like old declarations of survival and desire, we turn it loud

Every chord a refusal to be edited, every scream carefully unrolled, we turn it loud

 

The singer’s throat is a cracked-open map of cities that never asked permission, we turn it loud

Feedback blooms like wild circuitry, bright and uncontrolled, we turn it loud

 

We trade mixtapes like contraband saints, pressed into plastic confession, we turn it loud

A chorus of names that the mainstream tried to fold away but couldn’t hold, we turn it loud

 

The crowd is not a crowd but a constellation refusing alignment, we turn it loud

Dancing like something long forbidden has finally been told, we turn it loud

 

No stage can shrink what spills past its edges into the night, we turn it loud

We build a language out of distortion and daring, young and old, we turn it loud

 

And when the last note fractures into air and alleyway silence, we turn it loud