Dump Truck Chickadee

Ruminating’s a good word
For it, really—don’t blame brains

For working a little bit
Like multi-chambered stomachs.

Thoughts, language, explanations,
Memory-made fantasies—

We evolved to process these.
It’s all part of the breakdown,

And why should ruminant brains
Switch off to reduce methane?

We can survive on stubborn,
Well-defended weedy stems

Of patterned information
Most animals would starve on,

Thanks to our ruminations.
From birth, human baby skulls

Get stuffed with words and syntax
That set up ecosystems,

And it’s all symbiosis
From then—the environment

A human needs to thrive in
Is made of other humans

As much as an ant’s real niche
Is not tropics or grasslands

But a humming colony
Of conspecifics. The price

We pay is rumination,
Regurgitating language,

Scenes, social situations.
It’s cumbersome. Human heads

Are heavy weights, and our minds
Are sluggish, complicated,

And tend to outgas nonsense.
Worst of all, our parasites

Include devilish ideas
Capable of tricking us

Into giving them shelter
At the expense of fitness,

Even proselytizing—
These we have as well as bugs

Caught by other animals.
But stop trying to switch off.

The mind may have its toxins,
But our brains need to digest.