"What I hear" - Keiko Yara

I took the opportunity to do the listening exercise while I was waiting for my bus at gate 224 in port authority. There weren't many people surrounding me, yet the environment was full of sound and movement. There was the rumble of the busses shaking the floor. The swosh of air being violently pushed though the ventilation system. The clunking of the escalators as they move. Murmur of people sighing and yawning as they wait for their bus. The low and constant growl of the buses' engines. Suddenly the place was not as still as I once thought it was. The violent swinging of doors followed by footsteps of eager people. Candy wrappers being manipulated, pulled, ripped and crinkled. The obnoxiously loud chewing that followed. The sound of a man fighting with his newspaper and folding it over once the battle was over. The mumbles of another man who could not form a cohesive sentence. The heavy release of brakes that sounded like a sigh, a sound that resembles a long pssstsss. It was something like a snake hissing. There was a loud plunk of a bag being dropped.

The sound of people’s phones ringing and buzzing. The sound of clicking and tapping as they type away on their iPhones. The trumpet like blow that came from a man blowing his nose. Quick footsteps shuffling along the terminal running after buses. The faint voice on the announcement system that never seems loud or clear enough. A place part of my daily routine is now seen in a different light.