Every time you’re at a show
and the people around you
will just not shut up
tell them to shut up.
Every time.

Every single occasion
these
people believe that they’ve gone to a place
where their conversation
should take precedence
over the activities that the location was meant to house,
disavow them of that notion.

Tell the audience
to behave like an audience
and not a band of cackling jackals.
Inform the public
of their place
as beasts
in the thrall of performers
who are their betters.

Say to them
– repeat verbatim, if necessary –
“If you
do not understand the behaviors of men
of adults
of people who know how to behave
then
you
do
not
belong here.”

Stop them from destroying civilization.
Keep them conditioned.
Save them
from themselves
and save the performer
from inconvenience.