The Frequency Below the Basement
The infrasound was first detected by the university team
Mapping seismic background noise along the fault line’s seam
A steady 18.98 hertz, the frequency that sits
Below the threshold of the human ear but hits
The human body at the resonant frequency of the eye
18.98 hertz makes the eyeball vibrate, and thereby
The peripheral vision registers what isn’t there, the brain
Interpreting the vibration as a shape in the visual lane
This is the rational explanation for the haunted house
Infrasound from pipes or fans or wind that rouse
The eye to see the shadow in the corner, feel the dread
The frequency of fear is 18.98, and what I’ve said
Is textbook, published, verified–the science is correct
Except the signal underneath this basement doesn’t connect
To any source–no pipes, no fans, no seismic fault below
The signal is produced by something down there, and the flow
Has been continuous for longer than the house has stood
The frequency below the basement predates the neighborhood
The signal at 18.98 hertz has been transmitting from the ground
Since before the foundation, before the lot was zoned and bound
The frequency below the basement is a broadcast, not a byproduct
Something underneath the dirt has been signaling, and the duct
Of the foundation channeled it directly through the floor
The frequency below the basement wants to show you more
Than peripheral shadows–it wants the eye to shake
Until the thing it’s showing you becomes impossible to mistake
I brought the equipment home and calibrated for the source
The signal increases in amplitude the deeper that the course
Of measurement descends–at six feet down it doubled, at twelve
It tripled–whatever’s broadcasting doesn’t shelve
At bedrock, doesn’t attenuate with depth the way it should
The signal’s getting stronger and the source is understood
To be beneath the measurable, beneath the drill’s extent
I’ve gone forty feet and the amplitude’s ascent
Continues–the thing producing 18.98 hertz below my house
Is deeper than geology explains, as quiet as a mouse
In every frequency but this–the one that makes you see
The shapes your brain won’t process in the normal visual field
I’ve been sleeping in the basement for a week now, by the source
The peripheral shadows have resolved along their course
Into shapes I can describe but won’t–the frequency this close
Is strong enough to shake the fluid in the eye’s engrossment
Of light and signal, and the shadows aren’t shadows anymore
They’re detailed, and they’re watching me,
and what they have in store
Is something I can almost understand, a message in the low
Persistent thrum of 18.98, and what I know
Is this: the frequency was here before the house,
before the town,
Before the species–it’s been calling,
and we finally settled down
Directly on the speaker, built our bedrooms on the sound
And everything we’ve seen in every haunted house was found
By accident–we built on top of something trying to be seen
And it’s been shaking every eye that sleeps above,
patient and serene