Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Remembering How to Speak

I heard a voice today,
manifested from an alcove long forgotten
and hidden beneath so much social rubble
That I had resigned the resonance of that voice
To a distant past.
That echo, a fading memory existing only in peripheral
Of youth and unrestricted idealism.
The words which were eloquently uttered
Were of a quality that garnered no pretense,  no restriction.
There was neither forethought nor afterthought,
Only pure truth, unadulterated speech.
The words that followed were not profound in their nature,
They revealed no hidden mysteries or insights into the secrets of the cosmos
But it was the honesty, the unfiltered quality of speech
That caused me to stop and pay homage to the holiness of that singular moment.
I realized that an extraordinary amount of the conversations
In which I engage are predicated by complex social custom.
Questions and responses, all designed to produce a predetermined
Reaction on cue.
That moment of lucidity haunted me the entirety of the day
And I made a decision to speak through the spider webbed menagerie
Of everyday social interactions.
The result of which, I have found, is infectious.