i woke near midnight

there seemed to be murmurs coming from the front room/which since i live alone and have no radio/was creepy and scary

i swung the door to the front room open/to silence/to no murmurs/to just whispery traffic noise/and the high-pitched soundthread/of mild tinnitis

i closed the connecting door and went back/to bed/and soon dozed/but in minutes woke/to murmuring

marched to the door but stopped/listened/couldn’t hear much/but it was more than traffic noise

carefully silently opened the door

the sound stopped

closed the door but not completely/and at the edge of audibility/there seemed to be more murmuring

got an idea got my phone/opened the sound recorder app/set it to record/left the phone in the front room near the birds/went to bed

drowsed/dozed/sank into/the velvet starscape/of slumb THEN A CAR ALARM WENT OFF RIGHT BY THE BEDROOM DOOR BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP EE-AH EE-AH EE-AH EE-AH KEEZO KEEZO KEE–

then abruptly ended

i went back into the front room/got my phone and pressed stop/and the display said 3:14 and i pushed the play arrowhead

and there WAS a sound as if of distant voices/but i could not parse individual words/except perhaps near the end

hard to tell but it sounded like a hoarse old crow diffused in the fog of distance

“he needs to make more of us”

followed by an indistinct murmur of bird-assent AND THEN THE CAR ALARM WENT OFF BOTH ON THE RECORDING AND OUTSIDE THE WINDOW BWEEP BWEE*

i stopped the playback/at the exact instant the second car alarm stopped

you win, birds

I will make more of you