The Human Mind

By Christopher Kent

(with apologies to Joyce Kilmer and his poem Trees)

I think that I shall never find
A poem quite like the human mind.
It thinks up lots of crazy stuff,
Yet never seems to think enough
To keep from making dumb mistakes,
Or being woozy when it wakes.

It’s true our minds are self-aware;
We contemplate what’s true, what’s fair,
What might or might not win the day;
We’re good at work, but like to play.
We’re smarter than an ox or gerbil,
Rarely silent, often verbal.
Easily fooled, though we won’t admit it;
We do a thing, then forget we did it.

Minds have made some great creations;
Books and streetcars, poems and nations;
Structures wild or monolith-y,
Spewing thoughts, some dumb, some pithy.
Our use of tools and nomenclature
Lets us mess with mother nature,
Making choices dire or splendid
(consequences unintended).

Love’s a thing our minds aspire to;
Trying to fill our heart’s desire to
Find a special someone who can
Make us feel all born anew and
Stay beside us as we age;
But half the time we turn the page
And realize that our selection
Took us in the wrong direction.
In the end it’s all OK;
‘Cause love’s a game we love to play.

Human minds have major failings;
Telling falsehoods, and regaling
Others with our firm opinions,
Treating others like our minions.
Humans thrive on justifying
Everything from wars to lying;
Torturing, with words or knives,
Laying waste to others’ lives.
Seeking wealth and satisfactions
Sometimes leads to ghastly actions.
Egos and ambition rising,
Outcomes quite demoralizing.
Humans start out meaning well,
But some fall off the carrousel.

We humans dream of lives of glory
But mostly tell a mundane story.
That’s the way the cookies crumble;
Some folks score, while some folks fumble.

Poems are simple when compared
To human minds, with all their shared
Convictions and their certainties;
Poems are fluff compared to these.
Perhaps it’s true God made this mess;
A work in progress, I would guess.
My mind makes poems, like flowers bloomin’ —
But only God could make a human.