obliged

every answer has no way of really telling

utterances, right out of the blue

they have a chance, a slight chance

circumstantial being the reinforcement necessary

prompting doesn't get to the truth of it

maybe there is no verbal telling

that reframes or reflects 

the essence or the impetus

of the initial question

for how original can a question be

once it is brought out into words

if we could meet at the mind-state

and respond from there

then maybe question and reply 

would have no life

for in an authentic way

it would be dance 

and not the spillage of rhetoric 

maybe all speech is befitting hyperbole 

where the all of conversation 

is just an intimate broadway show

and we are an obliged audience 

to the staging of each other . . .