sapere aude
Sage McCarty
Audiobooks
They mix a twenty thirty-six—
Retreating from the sunset beach,
The burning snow, moved by our kicks,
Meets pinks and blues beyond my reach.
They mimic twenty fifty-five—
We dangle from their tire swings;
I never have felt more alive
Beside their clear, running springs.
They create twenty eighty-four—
And I find solace in their hopes
Of trains; and schools; and bikes; and stores
Of joy inside our green-topped homes.
And as they mix realities,
Their voices let me find my peace.
Sage McCarty is a first-year undergraduate student in the Honors Program at Chapman University.
about the author
"Audiobooks" examines how audiobooks bring fictional destinations into the lives of their listeners. This Shakespearean sonnet reflects on the relationship between daily life and audiobooks, with a focus on philosophical and fictional works, as the speaker recalls hypothetical works with positive and hopeful messaging. Audiobooks allow people to directly compare the books they listen to with the world around them while they interact with their world. Audiobooks may surround listeners with ideas of how life could be; philosophical works offer ideals listeners may imagine implemented into their surrounding reality, and fiction may present a better world. By allowing their listeners to divide their attention and carry out other activities, audiobooks allow their audiences to merge the books’ internal worlds with life around them. For instance, they allow listeners to imagine or experience a fictional, futuristic, or ideal reality existing among their surroundings. These mental destinations are destinations of emotional and thoughtful experiences, rather than truth. As expressed in this poem, audiobooks bring the emotional, philosophical, or eventful destinations of works into the daily lives of listeners.