Vlad sat down on that chair, with a sigh,
in what otherwise appeared to him
as eyeing a sightless single-person sofa

“So, I just asked myself,”
he cracked the silence,
“how many hours do I

approximately speak
every work week? Well,
I roughly calculated that

including two cats, two drivers,
two children, one life ‘s partner,
the sporadic delivery person,

a colleague here or there
and my own inner voice
that I speak

about 90 hours a work week.
While that might seem to justify
people stating that I speak too much,

and yet if I cut out my inner voice
it’s only about 6.5 hours a work week
of which about two hours

is spent on the cats,
resulting in about 4.5 hours worth
of human chatter other than with myself.

Of that time I speak
a little less than an hour
with my children per work week.

3.5 hours remain to be assigned.
I calculate a little less than an hour
with morning and evening drivers

and delivery people, in the evening, at times
on the phone with autonomous voices:
should I calculate talking to a phone?

That leaves 2.5 hours.
I speak a little less than an hour
a work week with my colleagues

of whom most I do not speak with
except then the daily warm hello and goodbye.
While with some not even that occurs.

1.5 hours endures the count
of which I spend listening, and replying in mind,
to you for a little less than an hour.

That means I speak about 30 minutes
with you per work week.
That’s around six minutes per work day.

Let’s make it count!” Time being up,
Vlad retreated into silence
with the exception of erecting a sigh

enabling a walk out of the room
voiced by squeaking shoes
and aging joints

                      —animasuri’24