Perfectly Natural

Perfectly Natural

You are falling into your life
and you don’t even notice it
except when it feels terrifying,

tunneling down, most things
rising around you, the walls
of an elevator shaft. What

will you forget next, without
even knowing it, a name,
a place, an accidental taste

of hairspray vapor, dish soap
lingering on a licked finger,
grit from a pencil’s pink eraser

run along a tooth. Think of all
the plants growing around your
home, and within your city,

and in this country, and in
every forest and jungle, plant
to do lists completed each day,

no need for us. Our remnants
wander from our hands, receipts
left behind in plastic grocery bags,

last year’s airplane ticket stubs
zipped into the suitcase. Everything
cannot be remembered, don’t you

know this, aren’t you used to it.
Forgetting is supposed to happen,
it can be beautiful, the release.