In Answer to Your Question
written by: Mary Bevan
‘Can we have a word?’ you say, coming on me when I’m miles away. Why yes of course, but certainly, fine, no problem, pull up a chair, and here I go gibbering, ad-libbing, clawing for words
“be careful of the words you say, keep them short and sweet, you never know from day to day which ones you’ll have to eat”
full of hesitations, repetitions and deviations, knowing how saying everything is much the same as saying nothing, creates delay, delays arrival at the point, points off in various directions, directs the conversation towards certain conclusions, concludes without decision – keep it up, keep going, keep on track, keep at it, keep talking, keep on top of it
“only in the spaces between words can you hear their meanings”
but which words now? Nouns? too revealing, a kind of undressing. Verbs? all traps you may trip and fall into. Beware of adjectives hot with emotion – scared, lonely, desperate, petrified, vulnerable – worse still adverbs that sob a capella – hopelessly, blindly, crassly, impossibly
“still on and back went poor Tom Bombadil, never completing” calling from one aloneness to another
running down fast now, running on empty, this precious time all running away and so much and so much I was wanting to say, though once without words we succeeded in reading each other
well maybe tomorrow… or some other day…
- In Answer to Your Question - December 29, 2025
- Broken - September 28, 2025
