Someone has asked you to find the words.
Write for someone who needs to be heard. Find a rhythm. Risk a silence. Keep the people at the back of the room.
Two commissions. Different rooms. Every sentence asks something of its listeners.
A public hearing. Six minutes before the vote.
The proposed cut saves £180,000 a year. The last two Route 6 buses carry an average of eleven passengers each. A six-month trial could preserve them while the city tests a revised timetable.
Two families. One toast. No private jokes without a door in.
A beloved private memory can lose half the room. An easy generality can lose the couple. Your task is to make affection specific and let everyone into it.
Open the speeches of Lincoln, Douglass, and Kennedy, or contest an exchange at Freeport. Mark the language, name its movement, and make a case for what it does.