duration: ongoing· place: across a table· surrounds: a sincere question
you have asked something and waited. the silence is no longer waiting silence; it has crossed over. it has become the answer. not the answer you wanted — the answer the other person has chosen to give without paying the cost of words. this is the silence the dialect of brisven tries to name in one syllable.
it is not always cruel. it can be a courtesy: i will not lie to you by saying the wrong thing. it can be a wound dressing: not now, not yet. it can be a refusal: ever. you will, by reading the room, know which it is, and what you knew you will then refuse to know for several months.
the unanswered silence outlives the question. it goes home with you, boils your kettle. it answers, in its own way, the next questions you were going to ask, and you do not ask them. this is the unanswered silence working backward up your evening, rearranging the furniture.