The Wisdom of the Body - April 17 2023

 

The Wisdom of the Body

April 17 2023

Of course you think you're yourself.

The master at the controls;

putting one foot forward

and choosing your own words,

night owl

or morning person.

Yet most of it

goes on without you.

The wisdom of the body

you've always simply trusted

to keep itself alive.

The heart, maintaining pressure

and keeping everything happily fed.

Like the below-decks crew

you never see

manning the engine room.

The black box of your brain;

talking to itself,

titrating chemicals,

culling memories

to either save or reject.

Your gut,

to which you've subcontracted out

the business of digestion,

only paying attention

when it embarrasses you.

Don't get me going on immunity,

a subject so complex

even the experts throw up their hands.

The front line

of skin and gut

holding out against the hordes.

The arms races, spy games

skirmishes and wars

that molecule by molecule

contend unstoppably

in every ounce of blood.

All while you've slept

snoring contentedly.

And gazing down

at its expanding girth,

the baby

growing in your belly

all on its own,

implanted there

as if you were merely its vessel.

A whole human being

from a tiny embryo.

Not to mention

that sharing this body

there are more bacteria

than all your human cells;

more of their DNA

than yours.

So just who is the instrument

and who the player?

Are you marching to your own drum?

Or is that just the heart you hear,

thumping away in your chest

as it's done every second of your life.

And will,

no matter how much attention you pay.