Seven Second Memory

Goldfish quiver, slivers of orange
Flitting through the clear waters
Of the aquarium. That is their world

Their universe and everyday
Everything renews itself
For this is the beauty

Of a seven second memory
We who are beyond the glass
Enjoy no such luxury

We are colossal, clumsy beings
Burdened by our history
Weighed down by mortifying recollections

Of impropriety, of careless conduct
Of unwitting vulgarity
Conscious of our essential inferiority

We are taunted by our own lucidity
And we eye those nimble creatures
Beyond the glass with a kind of strange envy.