To a Loquacious Friend

Either you bleat like a moth-eaten
sheep that knows only one argument,
or you make a whip of words to
jump the quick brown fox over the fence
of logic to bewilder your audience.
Sometime just shut up and listen
to a pin drop, or take your ears
into the woods and in human solitude
among chattering squirrels, quarreling
bluejays, the buzz and whine of insects
learn silence from a dark still pool.