Ludwig Wittgenstein was so noisily splashing around in the tub upstairs – part of his lifelong investigation into the fluid possibilities of language – that he couldn’t hear his old friend, Professor Einstein, pounding on the front door. They were going to miss a campus talk on the metaphysical implications of black holes if Wittgenstein didn’t hurry. Einstein had been looking forward all week to the lecture. As the minutes slipped away, he began impatiently pelting the bathroom window with pebbles, though he knew in his heart this was useless. It was as if the real world were small, way too small for anyone to notice.



Howie Good’s latest full-length poetry collection, Gun Metal Sky, is due in early 2021 from Thirty West Publishing.