I like to hang out in Denny’s on my nights off. It’s one of two places in town that’s open all night, so if I’m not going to just sit in my tiny cottage and rot, it’s a place to go. When the bars close around 2am, the drunken masses crash the gates and burst in like a flood. They bring with them many antics and loud conversations.
One such conversation occurred right near me recently, and got me to thinking. Two middle aged women were going on about all sorts of things, including ex and current boyfriends, child support from ex husbands, and you name it. I quote the segment that got me going for this write in the poem.
Hard Fact
“How was it last night?”
“It was great. I felt things I never felt before.”
How many times have I heard this
said this
It should have dawned on me then that
yes of course
each experience is different
each partner a new adventure.
Yet it’s nothing new
this new thing never felt before.
It’s been felt over and over
since the dawn of man
since infant hands first reached
for mother’s receding breast
This is hardwired
the new thing never felt before
Coded into every membrane
twin twined strands whose chief
design is to drive the wet
machine to reproduce
Consciousness manifests a complex
ghost in the chassis
It has never been felt before
so it must be real
sincere and meant to be
the path to joy everlasting
But it decays and the hardware presses on
relentless for the next new thing
The cell wins over rationale
till no excuse can justify
the barren need which strives to burst
forth well placed seed
Yes, we are but hapless victims of our biology, and periodically we even think we’re having a great time. But really we’re just being taken for a ride, dragged through rocky, sulfurous mud by the wild horses of brutal instinct.
So, there’s some Buddhism for you.
