Trite Conversations

I try to be included in the conversation
about the pounds you’ve lost
the new wrinkle skin application

and I’m sure it’s all important

but it bores me to death
would be better left unsaid.
I’ve really tried in the past
to put in my point of view

to be included in the round table
discussion of the latest reality show
about people two steps below
behaving badly on T.V.

Glad when it is finally over
make excuses not to be included
get lonely sometimes but better
than losing my mind.

I see you driving by in your car
yapping away at fifty-five miles an hour
knowing that what you say could go unsaid
and your life wouldn’t change much anyway.

I’ve overheard you at restaurants
“he said, then she said, oh, believe me when I say,”
sucking up air, gasping for breath
never stopping to look around

to see who else is in the room.

Your children long for your attention
acting out to get your time
eventually looking bored when they realize

they will never interrupt your monologue
like addiction to a drug you can’t pull away
to pay attention to the details of your life
it might give you a panic attack

and you would become the subject of another’s
conversation when they say, “Did you hear,
she went insane, stopped her cel plan,
joined a cult, wanders through the streets

talking to herself, thinks bugs are crawling
on her skin, her kids were taken away
the hospital couldn’t keep her.
She would have been better off

had she never stopped talking on the phone.
It kept her distracted, a better price to pay
than her complete break with reality."