Research and Birds, two poems

Research

The distance between
my nose and the wall
is four feet three inches
according to this tape
plus the width of my thumb
which measures
a certain distance
nobody is certain of.

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Birds

Sometimes I think I should know
the names of all the birds
I see in the trees in the morning.

Then I wonder what language
I should know them in.
Maybe English and maybe

all of the languages.
There’s no limit to what I think
I should know.

So I stand as still as dirt
and close my eyes and feel
my heart and breathe their talk

to hear their song today.
Tomorrow,
I’ll forget everything.