things i've given up

A number of things i've given up
having reached a time
of knowing 
not everything beneath the sky.
The birds know more.
And the sea mammals, even though
they are disappearing one by one.
From behind her counter, the secretary
must know something
the bosses don't.
And so the events of the world

turn and come around in patterns
appearing random.  Who can say?
All the physicists are trapped
in a world, the lawyers argue,
policy makers disagree.
Meanwhile, the news goes
on and on and the stray
dogs in third worlds die unburied.
That is not counting children.
And the men and women who leapt
at turnpikes without looking.
How does one take

their tea in the morning?
Someone delivers the paper
another sends a note.
I write her a letter, imaginary.
Some things i've given up,
some things not.