Animal Hearts

lookup When I leave,
this world is left with strangers.
I woke early this morning on a wooded mountain
and ambled out to an extinct fire pit –
maundering thoughts.
I watched birds and squirrels and listened
to songs and such and it occurred to me;
animals do not think in words.
And what of us humans, were we not to think
in words?
The heart just mutes these things out –
the mind just wishes to decrypt the mystery…
always a conflict…
an old and all-to-acquainted pair are they,
the heart and the mind.
They will go to their graves together.
And my mind cannot help but reason,
that when we use our hearts –
or when our hearts use us –
that we are most like animals.