My thoughts died today

quietly

without fanfare

they did not move

ever forward like a shark

they put on shoes

sometimes

before they put on socks

and when

the car was going eighty

sometimes

they opened the door

and hung their heads

inches from the road

my thoughts

did not march onward

tireless

as a caliphate

they were vain

sometimes

as thin pretty men

this is the notice

of their death

they died quietly

at home

taped up all the holes

and leaks

and choked

on their own gases;

I traded them ,

in truth,

for a quiet life

a cup of tea

and a pill

my thoughts do not sway

they are mine

and they aren’t much

not dead

but they are dying

my thoughts

stagger

like armadillos.