Of the Animal Soul, By Annette C. Boehm, Translated By Annette C. Boehm

In days of old, animals believed

humans to likewise have a soul

Children mostly still think this way today.

Their limbs are small and weak.

The heart however holds

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I wonder. When did my kids go from children to jaded "think like adults" and did I even notice?

Did the first kid stay innocent for longer, since he didn't have adults telling him things weren't as shiny and pretty, because we wanted to protect his innocence? And did the last kid become jaded too young, thanks to the older kids who wanted to prove what they know to be the truth about the world?

[ ] noise by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

& even when we said we were alone there was [       ] noise on the radio & there was [       ] noise in the car & there was [       ] noise all over the internet & there was [       ]  noise in the atmosphere & there was [       ] noise trapped in the system & there was [       ] noise in the economy & [       ] noise was the economy & there was [       ] noise on the train & there was [       ] noise on the road & there was [       ] noise at the board meeting & there was [       ] noise on the field & there was [       ] noise on the kitchen counter & [       ] noise in the cutlery drawer & there was [       ] noise at the hospital where there was [       ] noise in the blood & there was [       ] noise in the water supply & there was [       ] noise in the ocean & there was [       ] noise eating the ice caps & the polar bears were drowning because of it & washed up on the beaches then was a morbid & off-white [       ] noise & there was [       ] noise in the street & there was [       ] noise in the ozone a whole hole's worth of [       ] noise just counting down the days & there was [       ] noise in the photos of us because [       ] noise was on the lens & there was [       ] noise on the brain scan & there was [       ] noise during the exam where there was [       ] noise scratched into the desk & there was [       ] noise in the texts & there was [       ] noise in the census & there was [       ] noise in the law & there was [       ] noise on Friday at the cinema & there was [       ] noise at the seminar & there was [       ] noise at the peace talks & there was [       ] noise in the rent & there was [       ] noise on the wellness podcast & there was [       ] noise in the obituary & there were little [       ] noise cookies remaining even after carefully choosing reject all & there was [       ] noise in the inquest & there was [       ] noise in the commission & there was [       ] noise in the system you hear because [       ] noise was the system & too [       ] noise was reform & there was [       ] noise in the wounding & there was [       ] noise in the wording of the apology the [       ] noisiness of which made entirely void the apology & there was [       ] noise in the diversity statement & there was [       ] noise in the group chat & there was [       ] noise in the joke of it all, there was [       ] noise in the delivery & there was [       ] noise in the returns process & in the practice & in the prayer & it was there in the room with us still even when we said we were alone even when we swore that we could not hear it

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At the beginning of this year, I decided to memorize a poem. It's pretty long, and I made some progress on it, but didn't quite make it through the whole thing. I'm glad I took the time on it. Maybe I'll come back to it again, see what more I can do. Maybe not.

I'm thinking about choosing another poem for next year. Maybe to memorize, maybe not. I found this one. Not to memorize, just to read. And to listen.