Strangled No. 1

The rushing sound
keeps echoing in my
mind.
It’s not a sound that I heard in the external world,
and maybe I didn’t hear it at all,
maybe I just felt it,
my body struggling
to understand
why there was no air
even though it seemed that
respiration
should be occurring...
It’s the loudest silence, really...
the sound of outer space,
at least as I imagine it.
A vacuum.
I wonder,
were there sounds of struggle?
Did those sharp,
well-dressed men
say anything?
I’m told there was an alarm,
loud enough to make my assailants flee.
I heard no alarm,
no footsteps,
nothing but
the whoosh of blood in my veins.

Is the sense of hearing
connected somehow
to a person’s respiratory function?
Does the interruption of one
disrupt the other?