The Hamlet Project

The dance of almost speech,
The body arranging itself for words
Will be visible from a great distance
No matter how subtle.
One could not say what we see shift –
But our eyes are primed to notice the preparation for a pronouncement.
I think it is the breath, perhaps,
Swelling out the chest.
Or a kind of forward momentum
Or maybe just a slight tilt of the chin upward
A subtle cue
To muscle one’s way into silence
Or among a tumult of voices.
Those who wait their turn to speak
Will watch for this flag and wait.
Those whose pleasure it is to claim space
In conversation
Will watch it like a car on the entrance ramp of the highway
So they can speed forward before the car on the lane arrives.
The about to speak-ness broadcasts itself and is received
According to the system that reads it.