Let’s be very quiet
this year — no words.
If there’s an answer called for,
let our askers wait for it.
If they insist,
we should walk away.
If we cannot walk away,
let’s stare back without a sound
and watch them wriggle
in their seats,
trying to figure out
how they’ll get by
without us engaged
in answering only
the questions
they choose.
So many questions
and answers
remain unheard,
including our own;
let’s be very quiet.
Let’s listen to those.
Let’s be quiet.
There have been
enough words from us;
anything we need to say is
already out there
on the wind. In the air.
On the sidewalks.
In the streets. In the spaces
between their questions
and their desired answers.
Dark Matter 
January 2nd, 2016 at 12:28 pm
Oh yes! Letting it all hang out may sound therapeutic, but now the air is full of garbage…..polluting our souls.
January 1st, 2016 at 10:58 pm
I feel like I can relate to this. I’m often the quiet one in the group that does the listening and the advice-giving, but my advice is rarely followed, and often isn’t what they wanted to hear. I’ve had to slowly distance myself from these draining type of friends, who always seem to need something from me, but can rarely be relied upon.