The Question I'll Focus on Today is Who Am I?
The Question I’ll Focus on Today is Who Am I?
The question I’ll focus on today is Who Am I?
Not I, the voice speaking to you,
And not the voice of you speaking,
And not the events my eyes and ears witnessed,
And not the words my tounge and lips formed from air,
And not the feelings set upon me like weather,
But I, the experience.
Who am I as the witness of time and space?
Who am I as the observer of breath?
Who am I when I am not rebuilding my memories?
Who am I when I am not examining my thoughts?
Who am I when I am not feeling my emotions?
Who am I when my voice is silent?
Who am I when I am the void?
Who am I when I am inanimate?
Who am I when I will be still?
Who am I when I am now?
And now,
And now,
And now—
Not forever—
A Finite Now.
One of billions
On a rock
A wash in
A sea of ether
As countable as sand
As obtainable as time.
In my anxiety, I contemplate freezing my cyphaloid—
the crainial structures, brain, and spinal chord,
usually severed at the clavicle—
In hopes, that from the nothingness,
I will be awoken in an alien world
With an alien body.
All the aliens would ask me:
“What was it like to be a human?”
And I’d tell them all about us.
I’d sing all the songs
I’d rehearsed centuries ago
In cars,
In showers,
Walking down allyways.
I’d tell them about breakfast,
And how we would walk around with coffee cups,
Or water bottles,
Or cigarettes,
And we all had our favorite things.
I’d tell them about movie theatres,
And all the different ways you could go:
With a partner,
And miss the action
Lost in someone’s eyes;
With friends,
Laughing and shouting so loudly
The cast and crew could hear;
With yourself,
Totally engrossed in
The mile-high screen—
no matter its dimensions.
I’d tell them about clocks,
And what it was like to be late.
But most of all,
I’d find it hard to explain
How futuristic it all felt
Existing in such a primative time.
But what if,
When their machines revitalized my cyphaloid,
It was blank,
Like a defrosted chicken
With an Intel inside,
Serving only as proof
Of millenia,
Of currency,
Of research,
Of drive,
Wasted on death.
In my peace, I know I will end.
And so will it all.
An ending so ended
Nothing will be there
To show there ever was anything to begin;
And still, I ask, who am I,
As if there will be an answer.