The Adduction

By Majekodunmi Ebhohon

THE photic zone ends
in a clinical rejection.

The sternum convulses—
a knuckled grip
on a concaved chest.

Vocal friction
shuddering to simulate mass.

The utterance:
purely ballistic—
a bladder of air
screaming to reserve its space.

A competition of amplitudes
where volume substitutes
for the spine.

The signal collapses at origin:
a blind caliper
measuring the scope
of the vacuum.

The energy,
denied its exit as sound,
transduces.

A localized thermal shock
starring the slide—

the agar charred
by the friction of a frequency
with nowhere left to go.