What was that?

Reading:

What was that ?

I began to lose my hearing young.
Struggling at an academic meeting
Before I reached the age of fifty.
Tinnitus goes way back too:
A rushing wind rising and falling
As I tried to get to sleep, among
My fleeting memories of infancy.

You hear about the strokes
And cancers early on.
But no one fills you in
About the horrors of deafness: fiasco
That follows failure to understand;
Total exhaustion when trying at parties
To hear some one talking near at hand
Above the shattering commotion
Of everyone chattering at once
Across the room; sitting alone
Because you’ve just given up and let go;
Unintended contradictions on the phone,
Embarrassment the half of it:
These come as nasty surprises.

One sole benefit of this affliction:
When I’ve taken out my hearing aids
At night and we’re already in bed
And you want to tell me what someone said,
You must press right into my ear to speak
And I can feel the benediction
Of your lips against my cheek.