The Alchemist
Once consciousness is understood—
Its source, its emergence, its substance, etc.
That understanding becomes just another
Thought in the stream of consciousness
Which means it can’t be right
Because by the rules of logic
Any component of the whole
Cannot express the totality
Of that which it is merely a part.
You’re thinking of synecdoche
But that’s just a lame literary device
So we keep searching,
Passing through awarenesses of awareness,
Basements to subfloors,
Ends to new beginnings,
Doors opening onto more doors,
Darknesses to flashes of extraordinary light
And then deeper.
If you descend at a steady rate
In a closed off prison cell of your own design
You lose the sensation of plunging
It’s like you’re not even moving
You start to feel the same
Regardless of depth.
I guess it’s like a warm healing rain
That can explain everything except
For what it means to be wet.
The kidney is just the kidney
An organ regulating homeostasis
Via concentration gradients in loops of Henle
But that’s different
The kidney can be dissected and studied
Microscoped and subjected to experimental trials
It is an object for consideration
Socked away deep inside
The flanks of the dead and the living.
There are others who still cling
To the belief that the kidney is an ancient alchemist
Turning all this delicious wine
Into the foul yellow piss
Steaming the frosted dead leaves
Huddled together under my backyard eaves
As usual, I’ve taken something lovely
And turned it into human waste
Maybe my mind is to blame
Plotting illicit strategies while I sleep
Of concealing its fundamental origin.
If I could, I’d pass it all off on God
But we all know how that ends—
A predictably solipsistic self-salvation
Or a sorrowless total abnegation.
I think it’s a light that shines through
Even if the dark never needed it
Every religion gets hung up on whether
You are the hole or the wall or the light
It’s enough to know the darkness is grateful
Because everything here is miraculous
So don’t think of it as being used
There is an inflection point in life
When one learns that the cost of this experience
Is that someone has to suffer.
This is the citizenship of the living
And we all must do our part
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