you must always say something when the phone is on
talking small allowances, sentences between silences
every moment expected of you saying to fill space
while always must be listening attentive, undividedly
however hard to rest within the spaces
templates without words requiring too much from your mouth
the words that take the place of better than nothing are crooked and off
with demands that resemble the hubris of networks or treebranches
often unimportant and in empty times

yet in urgencies are desires that must count for something
every lingering loss of time to be wasted well
as stubborn voices breaking what it possibly could not have
a sound that faces nothingness, unless
there were no use for spaces, so better off abused
and better off were filled for the sake of time
as little had been said, it could be sworn it never was
the sounds that tranquilize the sense of urgency