The masses chatter wherever they mass,
the classes chatter even during tests,
while the Chattering Classes speak for themselves alone,
testing others’ patience. The patients, depleted
from chatter surfeit, are admitted
to the institution and quickly plug their ears.
TV talk show pundits, formerly feared,
go mute with the touch of a button. Lip-reading
patients, keen on self-preservation,
turn away from the screens. No escape:
on bulletin boards flyers announce classes
on “Chatter Today”—how to make your own
and be heard, how to understand others’, how to
genuflect and observe the rituals of a chattering mass.
MARIA TERRONE, a poet with three collections and a chapbook, has published essays in journals including Witness, The Common, and Briar Cliff Review. Her first book of creative nonfiction, At Home in the New World, will appear from Bordighera Press in fall 2018. www.mariaterrone.com
Latest posts by Maria Terrone (see all)
- Mystery, Menace, and Early Sorrow - January 23, 2020
- My Brother’s Guns - September 28, 2018
- Searching for George, Dan, and Fergus - December 1, 2016
