tell me something worth hearing

by Linda M. Crate

i've never been one for small talk
bores the hell out of me
it's such a chore
to think of
something without any facet
of imagination;
it's a gemstone without luster
a night without a star
rivers with no water,
and i just can't stand it anymore—
tell me a story about your
grandfather or sister
your mother or your child,
a lie about how you
saved the universe in your past life
anything at all;
but please don't talk to me of the
weather
it's nothing i can control,
and i hate the negativity of complaints
that's always ushered in,
in relation to the weather—
no, tell me of laughter
of some happily ever after of all
the things you're grateful for
maybe then i'd turn an ear in instead of
nodding politely, privately
hoping for your absence sometime soon.