"Talking."
"I was trying to think of when rightly
to enter the conversation with all the others talking,
thoughtfully, comfortably.
There was no occasion to say that 30 years in the Army
was a long time, or that very probably, the world is flatter
than one thinks.
The star is as far as one's eye can see.
My shirt had broken buttons I had hidden with my tie.
Otherwise, I was clean and reasonably dressed.
Yet, impatient to join in, I could hear my voice landing
suddenly on the edge of another's comments,
me saying I cannot remember what, just their saying,
'What?'
'What?'"
[LAUGHTER]