The Question Everyone Asks

You go about your day. From Home to Away, back to Home. From Morning to Noon to Night. Through it all, you see people. People you know, people you don't. And many of these people look at you, if briefly, and ask the same thing:

How are you?

It's a question you've heard again and again. One you've learned to answer swiftly, oft with a smile. Your reply has become fun-sized, economical: I'm good, you say, exhausted, but good! Busy, but good! Can't complain! You chirp these things and go back, back to your day, back to the truth.

Every now and then, someone seems to really want to know. They ask, and pause. They listen. And still. Still you usually give them your stamped-out ready-made response: I'm good! Can't complain! But sometimes, you stop, you breathe, you forget prudence and the tick of time and the walls you've so carefully built for reasons you can't quite remember.

How are you?

And words come. Stitched together with truth, emotion. You recognize the voice. It's yours.

 How are you? Really, how are you?