Silence Is So Accurate

Just because I have confined myself to a cave
does not mean I do not love people. In fact,
I have confined myself to my cave because
of how much I love people, & how generally
intolerable that is. Because of what they do

to people because of how much they love people,
which means to protect them from other
people, who in protecting the people they love
do great harm to the people first mentioned,
who then do great harm to the people second

mentioned, who then do great harm, etc. So I am
in a cave because I love people, & according
to my maths love is terrible. So, & hence: a cave.
& on the cave wall I am painting a cave wall.
& just underneath it I am sighing your name.

JEREMY RADIN

Jeremy Radin is a writer and actor. His poems have appeared in Poem-a-Day, Ploughshares, The Sun, Only Poems, and elsewhere. He is the author of Belly God (Orison, 2026, selected for the Orison Prize by Ellen Bass); Dear Sal (Not a Cult, 2022); and Slow Dance with Sasquatch (Write Bloody, 2012). Instagram: @germyradin.