Embodied - Sept 14 2023

 

Embodied

Sept 14 2023

I’m a fast walker,

brushing past people

pushing through crowds

rushing to be done.

I take inexplicable delight

in an invigorating stride.

So when I find myself dragging

I think of Descartes

and how wrong he was.

Because there is no separation

of body from mind;

I think, yes

but also feel,

the cool calculating brain

over-ruled, more often than not

by my hot-blooded heart.

And live in a body

of muscle, gut, and pulsing blood

with all its aches and maladies.

Its history

written in scars

and failing parts,

injuries

that never fully healed.

Today, the world weighs on me;

I feel drained,

cannot will my feet

to move any faster.

It's like walking underwater

or through deep sucking mud.

In the crushing gravity

of an alien planet

with thick unbreathable air.

The body, fit and able;

the mind

sapped of will.

I am dragging, mired

immobilized.

A blur of people streams by,

hurrying through their busy lives

oblivious of me.

As it should be, I think;

as I feel myself shrink,

struggling for a reason

to hurry on my way.