12 outbursts

1. We talk about weather.

2. We talk about traffic.

3. We say it’s fine. Even though it’s not.

4. We must be seen to be buoyant and pleasant and enthusiastic and confident, if we are to get anywhere, anywhere that is perceivably worth getting to.

5. We be polite.

6. We make conversation about incidental, inconsequential things, not because anyone cares and not because we can’t think of anything else to say.

7. Usually, to utter what we’d like to utter would be to present ourselves as any number of less than positive things, including, but not limited to, self-involved, fanatical, incoherent and/or rambling.

8. To stand quiet, on the other hand, would be to present ourselves as rude, socially inept, moronic.

9. So we say things about raining and ducks and cats and dogs.

10. Really, it would be more meaningful to shout gibberish and whisper swear words at the people waiting for taxis.

11. Of course, to the ones we are closest to, or to the ones we don’t care to be accepted by, to them, we can scream and grunt and shit all over the linoleum floor.

12. And sometimes we don't know what or how to speak at all.