Persistence, Self-Regulation, and Trust

"What economists call noncognitive skills like persistence, self-regulation and trust."

Yes, no, maybe. The body
Fights internal rhymes daily,
Knowing how random crimes go

Coursing through nerves and bloodstream,
This mistake meaning that one,

The way a thought swerves heartbeats,

As if pulse and impulse linked
Like bridges over the course
Of hosted flagella

Swimming their own free riders
Downstream to future's ocean.
Dreams, and the places between

Dreams, the dark parts of each sleep

That we need for rest, which will
Not let us rest, send verses

Up from the lightless places
Where whatever's left of clouds
Pool and regroup and swear oaths

Avowing how it's better
To pool in bottomless wells
Than to ascend as angels,

Vapid, flighty courtiers bound
For the next break on the ground.
Then another spring gushes,

The best thoughts expose themselves
Again to thoughtless sunshine.
Up they go as down they go,

The lightest and most trusting
Back to fogs and puffy clouds,
The most contaminated

Down to the bone worms gutting
Whale falls, but all, all of them,
Unselfregulated, gone.