Mind Wanders

Learning is forgetting just
Enough of what’s collected
To do something with what’s left,

The life of the set of lives
That lug around nerves and brains,
That can’t articulate roots

To learn by being in place,
But have to move and gather
And sift models in the head,

To sit up in bed awake
After complicated hours
And still recognize a day,

Recognize your creature life,
Whatever creature you are,
And start about your business,

Whether you woke in a nest,
A cave, a burrow, bare air,
To recognize this as here.