can you hear it?

 

The subtle sounds. 
sho.
show.
tshow.
shaow.

Four distinct sounds to her ear, 
rolling together in her mind. 

Sienna has been having assessments in school. Coupled with her increasing interest in learning to read english, much of our time has been focused lately on letters, words and the subtle sounds they make. 

There are four words, and many other compound words comprised of these four, that she is studying in Mandarin. The pronunciation so similar, all sounding like, show. But to her, there is no confusion. Walk, hands, ball and laughing. She knows them each for themselves. 

i love subtlety.
it means you are paying attention.

A book that I have had a long love affair with is Speak, Memory by Nabokov. Nabokov is a synesthete. Meaning he has a condition called synesthesia, which he calls colored hearing. Basically, it's a secondary sensation of a sound as color and color as sound. dreamy. Listen to what he writes:

The long "aaa" of the English alphabet has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French "a" evokes polished ebony. This black group [of sound] also includes hard "g" (vulcanized rubber); and "r" (a sooty rag being ripped). Oatmeal "n," noodle-limp "l," and the ivory-backed hand mirror of "o" take care of the the whites. I am puzzled by my French "on" which I see as the brimming surface-tension of alcohol in a small glass. Passing on to the blue group there is the steely "x," thundercloud "z," and buckle-berry "k." Since a subtle interaction exists between sound and shape, I see "q" as browner than "k," while "s" is not the light blue of "c," but a curious mixture of azure and mother-of-pearl.

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the repetition of sounds.
the blurred image of a cactus.
the fence shadow on the sidewalk.
listen,
can you hear it?