by Fern G. Z. Carr

I think to myself –
of course.
Who else would do it for me?
I’m not a psychic
recipient of other people’s thoughts.

I think to myself –
how verbose, wordy, repetitious, redundant.
Is this “self-telepathy” –
doesn’t everyone think to themselves?
Did Descartes say, I think to myself, therefore I am
and who ever said, By Jove, I think to myself I’ve got it!

Conjugations of the mind:
I think to myself.
You (singular / informal) think to yourself.
He / She / It thinks to himself / herself / itself.
We think to ourselves.
You (plural / formal) think to yourselves / yourself.
They (masculine / feminine) think to themselves.

Polite discourse:
I believe to myself that this belongs to you.
I’m afraid to myself that I may have offended you.
I doubt to myself that this expression will ever disappear

and although I do talk to myself,
I never confuse that with thinking to myself.
In fact the last time I checked,
my cerebral cortex was still whispering
its secrets to me
and to me
alone.