wednesday, march 15
you've got to remember
that a lot of your mind,
a lot of the systems that your mind
integrates with
live outside of your body as you conventionally
think of it
outside of the skin and bones, beyond
the fur and feathers, external to the
narrow motions and faculties of an isolated animal
you're on the bus, riding up the highway through
the grass and utility poles, past the houses
and herds and irrigation ditches
you're looking out the windows of a conveyance
borne on taxes and legislation and road projects
and the history of a whole place
you've got the wind in your hair and a watch on
your wrist telling time according to a system
with its roots centuries deep, date math grounded
somewhere in systems ancient now for millenia
you're writing on a device impossible
to build a decade back
in strings of glyphs with their roots in
phonecia, in rome
the birds are coming back and making nests
the grass and leaves are breaking out into the sun
you feel good when you step outside and breathe the air
the air is a product of a system well beyond your
understanding and control
and yet also a system that includes you and enfolds
your actions, encompasses whatever meaning your life
might have, travels through the circuits flickering
inside your head, your heart, your lungs and legs
and fingers walking on the keys