Intact

Feb 9 2015

Deprived of touch

in the cold dormitory

in the bleak orphanage

in The People’s Democratic Republic

the children grew up dull, and stunted,

unable to reach out

from the dark hermetic cell

of self.

You’d think the absence of touch

would dissolve boundaries,

as if you could surreptitiously slip

out of your skin

undetected.

Or that the deficit

would strengthen the senses,

like a bat, migrating night,

or the gift of sight

in infra-red

ultra-violet.

But no, you must live with pain,

because oblivion

is certain death.

You must be stroked

soft and hard

warm and cold

dry and wet.

Feel

with fingertip, and tongue,

the intricacy of skin

the taste of another.

Exposed nerves

bristling, hair-trigger,

ticklish, and tactile, and rough.

You must be held

and mothered

and loved.

Or you will wither away,

a baby bird

left in the nest

gaunt, and featherless.

Born blind, or deaf

is a minor setback,

but deprived of touch

is sentenced to death.

You will feel no pain

even as the flame

envelopes you,

the inferno

consumes your final breath.

The recently published Touch:  The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind, by David J Linden, inspired this poem.

He argues that the neglected sense of touch may be the most important. The opening of the poem refers to those infamous Romanian orphans who were so deeply damaged by the privations of their upbringing:  never held, touched, stimulated. To be born blind or deaf is a terrible hardship; but you will almost certainly grow up to lead a full and normal life. While these stunted children, deprived of touch at an early age, can never be fully human.

Coincidentally, at about the same time I heard Linden interviewed, I became aware of a rare condition called “mirror-touch synaesthesia”, in which people not only feel their own sense of touch, but that of anyone whom they witness. It’s like a super-charged power of empathy that, just through sight, can trigger sympathetic sensation in the brain that’s as powerful and real as actual sensation signalled by one’s own nerves: an over-abundance of touch that can be as debilitating as the absence of touch experienced by those Romanians orphans. Apparently, watching someone get injured is bad; but eating with people is horrible! But nowhere in the discussion (on the NPR program Invisibilia) did anyone ask about sex:  would sex be overwhelming, impossible, or spectacular? I wonder!!

The title digs down to the root of “intact”, linking the idea of tactility with that of surviving whole. Which --  along with expressions like “losing touch” and “being tactless” – shows just how language continues to recognize (even if we don’t!) the importance of touch to social life, as well as life itself.