Wittgenstein's Song

Merely brilliant is no match

         for being intimate. When you catch

a wave that breaks, you can only
     
         half-determine its course. Lonely

    is the determined man, whether

 it's he who decides his fate, or fetters

       the world lays on him. This
             
           I learned from a young man's kiss.

Thus, I've learned, said nothing.

    To be silent is something

        for the wise to practice. Words

          go too far. How much have we heard

worth holding onto? How much said
 
   that can placate what we dread?

Wittgenstein's Song originally appeared in Kevin Killian and Dodie Bellamy's Mirage in 2009, and in the 2010 Mipoesias chapbook Returns.