I’ve always struggled with knowing when it is my turn to speak. I wrote about it six years ago in my post To speak or not to speak, that is the question. An event several weeks ago drove home to me quite forcefully that I still find the art of conversation elusive – very elusive. It was frustrating enough for me to want to write about it, but try as I may it didn’t convey the frustration that I felt. I enlisted the help of Copilot, but I still couldn’t get away from the article seeming like a ball-by-ball play of the situation instead of being about how I felt. After a lot of back and forth conversation, Copilot suggested a poem might be a better platform for expressing how I felt. So after an hour or so of collaboration, here’s the final result. Let me know in the comments how the poem resonates with you.
Unspoken Turns
In the crowded theatre of conversation,
I sit, a silent actor on life’s stage,
The script eluding my grasp,
As others pirouette through dialogue.
To speak or not to speak?
A riddle whispered by invisible muses,
Their laughter echoing in my ears,
As I fumble for cues, lost in the spotlight.
One-on-one, I stumble—
Words tripping over each other,
A clumsy waltz of syllables,
And the lead remains elusive.
But in the ensemble of many,
I am a fish out of water,
Caught in the undertow of turn-taking,
Gasping for air, seeking my moment.
To speak or not to speak?
A soliloquy etched upon my soul,
As I watch the choreography unfold,
Wondering when my cue will come.
ESP or supernatural whispers?
The others glide seamlessly,
Their voices weaving patterns,
While I unravel the threads of silence.
To speak or not to speak?
A silent plea to the cosmic director,
Who withholds the script,
Leaving me adrift in this conversational sea.
And so, I observe—seven decades and counting,
A detective of human interaction,
Yet the clues remain cryptic,
The secret handshake of discourse eluding me.
Next time you witness rudeness,
An untimely interruption,
Consider the hidden struggle,
The desperate quest to belong.
For we, the speechless wanderers,
Navigate your world with uncertainty,
Our turns unmarked, our cues obscured,
Yet yearning to dance in the spotlight.
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