Tell Me To Shut Up

To a friend who lets me ramble.

June 28, 2011 / 3:45 pm

Connected through the
Mutual need to express
Opinion and feeling and
The desire to be appreciated
For being clever or attractive
Or kind. Words on a computer
Screen that blink in and out
Of focus with mouse clicks
That make the day pass faster
Or fill it with some sort of
Meaning. A virtual hand to hold.
Conversations that, on the
Surface, seem vapid speak to
The human condition of being
Lonely and alone in a world wide
Web of who you know, what you
Do, when you do it, and why you
Are who you are. Willingness to be
Honest, having to be nose-to-the-
Grindstone despite holding hopes
Of happiness. Here’s to
Happenstance. Tell me to shut up.

Reviews

[DrD]

Absolutely delightful. Thank you.

[screamin'ian]

I'm still listening, Val

[theludus]

i like the tone of it and the linebreaks/enjambment. it doesn't look to get too clever or too anything really and as the poem goes on & because it stays in that unornamented zone, it builds for me. there's a realness about it, not so much that the narrator is resigned, just realistic and goes ahead and gets on with it. and there's a sadness too. the steadiness of the poem speaks to what is absent
and thus maps the heart. i don't mean that in a cheesy way either, i mean that we aren't this day to day existence, the sad part or epic part is trying to be more, to be or

have that realization... and so this poem is sad and pretty like that.

[Marie Anzalone]

A friend willing ot listen to us ramble is a treasure indeed... nicely done. So rare to find a good poem about friendship.