So a friend called and said you don't speak at all nowadays.
And I paused. What did she mean. I talk all the time. Morning till night. Instructions, explanations, justifications, dictations, directions. And yet, she is right, I don't speak at all nowadays. Not to the people who matter. Not about what matters. Not about caring, not about giving, not about joy, loving, living, reading, walking. No. And as I pause and look around, I see a growing circle around me. A circle of silence. With loved ones, friends, people I thought I cared about receding beyond the periphery. Into the haze. Beyond this circle of silence.
While I talk, incessantly. To work colleagues. Instructing, explaining, justifying, dictating, directing.
And turn from one group to another, as the first group goes home, to their families, their circle of warmth, and I continue to talk. Incessantly. Warding off my circle of silence. Till I fall asleep.
Dead
tired.