When We Talk

Our language floats
between us around us
on elliptical currents.
Uncounted words from before,
shaken loose from longer
fragments, tumble about unused,
filling the air like pollen.
When we choose to hear,
we gather some at random,
allow them to germinate
in the womb of our ear.
Whole strings of words
coalesce there; phrases
never spoken,
sentences unfinished.

Thus, we communicate,
more or less,
even as we speak.

More poetry by Richard Lynn Boynton