PY: Affronted by silence

My silence is not a weapon intended to hurt

Nor is it a sign of my condescension or superiority

It is merely a part of me, one that refuses to be tamed into socialization

Those awkward pauses and deafening bursts of silence that you curse 

Are not a testament to your conversational skills, nor mine for that matter

When you try harder to draw me into conversation, it only makes me cringe

For it feels like you are condemning my silence

Pulling away my comforting armor, which only makes me clutch it harder

When I am quiet in the midst of cheerful conversation

I can feel the accusation in every glance that comes my way

In every question that is intended to draw me out, as if I were a snail in its shell

When I do not make small talk every time I see you

You assume it is out of hatred or disinterest

But small talk is a language that shall always be foreign to me

And silence is as natural to me as words are to you

In a world that thrives on communication, silence feels like a luxury I can never really afford

Why is the world so affronted by silence?

I promise you my undivided attention

Anytime you speak, every time you speak

But you ask for my voice, and that I cannot always give you.

P.S: There are parts of me that crave silence. Not that I am against conversation. Oh, I can talk for hours on end, and there are many people in this world who will vouch for that:P It's just that I'm not always that way. I sometimes like to retreat away from the world and silence is the shortest path there. The collateral damage is that it affects other people. There have been several occasions when someone looks at me like I'm an alien because I have been silent for a good half hour while everyone else has been talking non-stop. I have been subject to various versions of the following: Are you alright? Do you never talk? You seem like a very quiet person. But that's just what I wish would be different. Why don't people be more accepting? If it's okay to be talkative, it's equally okay to be quiet. Quiet is not a synonym for something wrong, and it's high time the world starts looking at it that way.