When I returned to London for a visit post-Covid, I noticed a change in the din produced while riding the Tube System. The good news was the noise abatement worked on the upper lines. The bad news being that it came at the expense of the lowest line.
Mind the Specters
Banshees haunt the deepest train lines
on London's Underground with flickering
lights and earsplitting complaints.
Layer upon layer of civilizations
agitated by mechanical worms now
grubbing the earth with passengers
across bone orchards long crumbled,
returned again to black dirt and dross.
Noise abatement on the upper lines
provokes deafening dins on the lowest.
175 feet down the ancients cry out anew.
The riders nettled, but carriage operators
hurtle on, sporting newly issued ear plugs.
Marilyn Aschoff Mellor
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