Acoustic Chamber

I moved toward the mouth of a corrugated drainage culvert half-buried in dry soil. The afternoon air outside carried no cadence, so I descended into the round steel mouth to test its acoustics. Kneeling on one knee, I laid my right palm flat against the cold, ridged pipe while keeping my left arm angled upward in a precise geometric pose. I tapped the metal once with a small brass valve nut I carried from the yard. The sound curled around the curved ribs, expanding into a deep, sustained boom. I held my stance motionless, allowing the steel cylinder to magnify my single strike until the vibration settled into the silt.