Reading the book Bad Voltage,

Sunning on the balcony,

Lynx mad-skating by and through

Pedestrians in Paris

To motion-generated

Musical sounds preprogrammed

To match exact location,

I'm being bombarded by

An unlikely orchestra --

Sprinklers at 7 o'clock

Beating nick-nick-nick-nick-nick

Periodically shooting

A machine-gun staccato;

Earthmovers just down the block,

Metal modern dinosaurs,

Growling, their great bass engines

Grumbling and rumbling,

Which when backing up emit

Counterpoint piccolo tones

Piping beep-beep-beep-beep-beep,

The growling and the piping

Reflecting and caroming

Off the hill across the street,

To arrive at 12 o'clock;

Mid-60's Dusty Springfield

Coming out of a speaker

Positioned at 2 o'clock --

Each set of sounds reaching me

At about the same volume,

Blending rather than clashing,

Serenading, surrounding.