but the mind
was made
to follow,
not to lead—
its Alice in gingham,
raked along
by the breeze,
not the rabbit
who torpedoes
fleet
and naked
through the field.
And we say "strange"
as if surprised,
as if mind itself
had been first
to suggest this,
but the fact is that
mind is clever
just
as a child is—
it can teach us
new dance steps
when it watches
then burlesques,
and it speaks to us
only in the most faultless
sentences
to which it listens,
then repeats.
