It’s said you say that one who knows
does not speak, while the chatter
of thoughtless souls
never ends.
I think perhaps, dearest
master Lao-Tzu,
you might consider
that the thinker has no choice
but speech, yet can only speak
in the unheard, unaccustomed
voice of thought, captive
of the strange inflection
of unfamiliar word-strings,
sounds that sound suspiciously
like silence.
DB Jonas is an orchardist living in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of northern New Mexico. Born in California in 1951, raised in Japan and Mexico, he has returned to poems after a long hiatus in business and the sciences. His work has appeared in numerous journals.