Cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am

Cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am

I think about everything now

The time is moist and ripe

I cogitate, I speculate,

My mind is in full flight.

I wonder about systems,

Thoughts of structures plague me too,

I imagine that colour sequences

Almost always start with blue.

I visualise mathematics,

Long sequences of noughts and zeros,

I cannot for the life of me

Work out why billionaires are heroes.

My Latin’s coming back to me

In fragments from the past

Catullus, Horace, Virgil,

I’m sure you must have asked

About ‘cogito ergo sum’

Was it meaningful to me?

I answer with the basics,

Conjugating sets me free.

I think about everything now

I fail to understand

Why meme-makers cannot spell,

Why grammar’s out of hand.

I think about everything now

About trivial details

Why adverbs have gone missing

How compound nouns have failed.

I think about everything now

I love ancient books and men

I re-read old lover’s poetry

That’s hidden in my den.

I think about everything now

The best is most obscure

Like Heinrich Heine’s Elfking

Or Beowulf and more.

I’m enchanted by other languages

I feel a different self

When I speak in German

To my friend

While walking in the dell.

I’d like to be transnational

A world-citizen’s the best

But my dreams can be quite crazy

To that you may attest.

I think about everything now

There’s a loop inside my brain

That causes me perplexity

And thoughts I can’t contain.

I think about everything now

You know I’m quite obsessed

The extent of my fascination

Is putting friendship to the test.

I think about everything now

How can I not be concerned

When ice caps are still melting

And forests are always burned.

I think about everything now

It’s so exhausting that I find

My wiring’s getting tangled

Repetition’s messing up my mind.

I think about everything now

Of the time that is still here

Of ‘meine Wunderkinder’ and

Excellent Belgian beer.

I think about everything now

Not all of it is bad,

Though the best is often hidden

Under the melancholic and the sad.

I think about everything now

Of aches and throbbing pains,

And the lines upon my face,

Of great droughts and flooding rains.

I think about everything now

About the living and the dead

They’re all up and partying

In the space inside my head.

I think about everything now

My compulsion is to write

I come up with funny ditties

That agitate me in the night.

I think about everything now

I’m hard-wired to respond

I’m trying to make connections

Hoping my words are yet my bond.

I think about everything now

Before it’s much too late,

Who knows what’s here tomorrow

Who understands one’s Fate.

I think about everything NOW.

© KP March 2024