Talking always wins out

We’ve always hated each other when we talk to people, haven’t we? I ask X. When you talk, X says. Maybe it’s not even ourselves we hate, I say, but the inadequacy of talking itself, the false notes that bounce off each other, between people! No, it’s probably just you, he says. But these days we don’t care as much as we used to, do we? I say. Remember how we used to fall silent with disgust if either of us caught sight of ourselves in a window while we were talking to someone? Now you’ll jabber on about anything, he says, you’d talk in a hall of circus mirrors, you’d talk to your own distorted reflections. Oh we still hate each other when we talk bollocks, I say, but it’s a tepid hate now, like you taught me. We don’t take talk personally. But your jabbering still wins out, he says, you just can’t help yourself. Talking always wins out.