Is there any way
to begin a sentence
that doesn’t immediately
predestine its ending?

I keep talking
in hope of breaking through
to one.  It’s not working,
and it’s not easy.

If you speak often,
you’ll repeat yourself
often.  If you act often,
you’ll act and react. 

Whatever chance I have
to say or do something original
before I stop speaking or doing
is rapidly vanishing into the haze

of things I’ve said or done before
that hangs around my head
and keeps me from seeing more
than what I know I have done.

Silence, of course, is the answer
to the original question…