the sphinx

I was walking my dog the other day when we ran into the sphinx

“Good morning sphinx”, I said
The sphinx said nothing
“How was your weekend sphinx?”, I tried
The sphinx stared into the distance

My dog came up carrying a note in his mouth
I deciphered the note:

“The net serves to catch the fish; once the fish is caught, the net must be forgotten.
The snare serves to catch the rabbit. Once the rabbit is caught, the snare is forgotten.
Words serve to catch meaning; once the meaning has been caught, the words can be forgotten.
If only I could find someone who has forgotten the words, someone I could talk to for a while.”[1]

We walked on

My dog looked around and glanced back at the sphinx one more time

[1] Zhuang Zi, 3rd century BC