which will be appearing on my blog just as soon as my flatmate, who is the subject, has left Baiyin.

Chatterbox

He mutters and mumbles,
and stutters and grumbles,
in a voce that’s constantly sotto.
He sings lyrics from songs
where he gets the words wrong
“Don’t draw breath”, it would seem, is his motto
Don’t try to attend him,
for it will not offend him
if the only ears listening are his
Without being brutal
responding is futile
a monologue’s all that it is.
The conventional view
that it takes at least two
to converse, is not one that he holds.
So he speaks, then replies
and agrees or denies,
debates with himself, even scolds.
The heart of the matter’s
that all of his chatter’s
on topics he finds fascinating:
all the thing’s that he’s seen
and the places he’s been
and himself (well that goes without stating)
In his eyes there’s the gleam
of self-love and esteem
for the wisdom he spreads all around
and when given the choice
it’s his own constant voice
that’s always the one preferred sound.
Don’t fret, it’s OK
the things he finds to say
are a pleasure that you can forego
Simply smile and then nod
and turn up the i-pod.
It’s unlikely that he’ll even know.

Oh, Bob, I love it! Usually your poems don't rhyme this much, right?

It surely describes what you've talked about with your flatmate (we'd say "roommate").

I see flatmate and roommate as being different things. I had a roommate when I was in college. We shared a room - two chairs, two desks, two bookcases, two beds one room. With a flatmate we share an apartment - one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, two bedrooms -five rooms.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:


It surely describes what you've talked about with your flatmate

Not exactly.
It describes what HE'S talked about and HOW HE's talked while the rest of us fail to get a word past his constant stream of self-absorbed nonsense.

Ah.

Well, we just say "roommate" either way. We don't have "apartment mates."

Congrats, Bob, you have nicely captured the "crashing bore' in verse. As a sometime poet (& avid student of poetry), I like your choice of singsongy meter & rhymed lines, reflecting the smug and predictable pratings of your subject, LOL!