And We Know You Don’t Care

We’re not going to pretend
You’re going to respond, but
We’re going to talk to you

Anyway, since we’re so tired
Of talking to our own kind,
And our kind can’t stop talking.

Given non-responsiveness,
We won’t get you all worked-up.
You won’t get us all worked-up.

You won’t make worse fools of us
Than we’re making of ourselves.
This is why people have gods,

Saints, ancestors, sacred groves.
The compulsion to converse
Is unrelenting, the risks

Of human conversation
So severe, even a wall
Can be asked to lend an ear.

What is prayer but a request
That needn’t fear an answer?
We’re not to the point of prayer,

But we’re desperate to think
Of something to say that’s not
Partly begging for readers

To admire what we just said.
How much easier to speak
To whatever doesn’t care.