the world is full of stock responses.

Drunken rants and sober prophets.

The type of things people say to do 

that even in their cool sincerity

would never do themselves.

Are capable people incapable of good advice?

Or are jokes just easier to offer?

Is saying you don’t know so hard to admit?

Or are we so prone to speak that it doesn’t matter?

With nonchalance and anxious laughter

everyone knows everything you don’t.

With due respect and eyes that wander

everyone’s got the answer for things they can’t control.

In a world of stock responses—

I hear the words that don’t come out

and do my best to listen.

I take them with a grain of salt

and read between the lines.

I see their good intentions get

distorted by this feeling,

that no one has the answers, and some things never change—

I’ve just left the conversation

long before its end.