Vacuous Existence
You have to have a certain
atmosphere to carry a proper conversation.
I’ve found that a mixture of
nitrogen and oxygen works best.
Absolute vacuum will get you nowhere.

Yes, you can stand in a vacuum
and attempt to talk until you’re
blue in the face
but you will have said nothing.
Oh, perhaps you will have
communicated something via a
vaguely intense form of body language.
Yes. What with all those flamboyant gesticulations,
the grabbing at your throat, and that distinct
bug-eyed expression locked upon your face…
just what will you have conveyed?
At tops, one self-centered topic of discussion
and beyond that,
dead silence.

Again,
in a vacuum,
you make a pathetic conversationalist.

Okay, so I will give you that one excuse,
but here we are,
give or take a few thousand feet above sea level,
and the barometric pressure looks pretty good.
Quite favorable air quality.
Yes, your skin now appears quite pink and rosy.
Indeed, I see your lips part.
I sense the rush of air over their
spittle spattered existence as
your lungs fill to maximum density.
And then, of course, that ever important
rise of the diaphragm as you
expel all that gaseous atmosphere
up past your larynx and out to us,
your ever enthralled listeners.

And yet, you say nothing.
Oh, I see your lips moving.
Yes. Most certainly notice that
you are trying to communicate some
concept you deem worthy of
great personal import and yet…nothing.
Nothing and more than that. Nothing.
It’s as if you are taking the air
and giving nothing back in return.

“Taking the air.”
Wasn’t that an old Victorian expression?
“Excuse me sir, but,
where did they go? “
“Them? Oh,
they’ve stepped outside.
Taking in the air, as it were.”

Yes, they (as you) were taking the air and yet,
providing nothing in return.
Taking: yes.
Consuming: yes.
Giving: no.
You and they:
one and the same.

Why it’s almost as if you were some
pompous politician
sitting in a high mighty chair
in a great hoary white house.
Taking the air.
Sucking in all our sustenance.
Devouring the world and
giving back nothing,
whilst the rest of us slowly
suffocate.
Us: cursed by your bloated yet
vacuous presence.

Do us all a favor.
If you won’t exhale
then at least hold your breath.
And there, while you turn assorted shades of blue,
just think of all the lives you will have saved.
Saved just by simply uttering nothing.
By all means,
cherish this self imposed vacuum by yourself alone,
and please let the rest of us
breathe.

©06 Jack Hubbell