*****
When I was young I had a friend
Pretension to did not pretend —
He was a humble working swain
Who looked and acted very plain,
But once you’d known him for a time
He’d allow something sublime
Accidentally slip out
Reminding you what life’s about!
He had, he and another dude,
An interesting interlude
On a normal happy day —
They’d gone to see some music play
Talked about it afterward
Each had played the selfsame part,
He affirmed in telling me,
Remained for both a Mystery
Without a bit of warning or
Predisposition theretofore
They found that they had traded places
Stood behind each others’ faces
To them both it apparent be
They’d traded bodies suddenly!
Getting past their great surprise
This exper’ience put them wise
To a truth we but suspect,
Who scientific’lly reflect
With lofty disapproval, blinking
On what we call “magical thinking”
For, by my sooth and by my troth,
It happened just the same to both!
“It wasn’t curiosity,”
Years later’s what he said to me,
Or wonder or amazement, or
The wish to understand it more
The feeling motivated me
Much closer to stark panic be!
Not because I was afraid
About the concept of the trade,
Or anxious once I took a look
In his body I’d be stuck —
Later did we both agree:
To hear, to feel, to smell, to see
So absolutely diff’rent were
Much, much more so than we infer!
Diff’rent, diff’rent all around
Each sight, each taste, each smell, each sound
The sensory split so diverse
That instinct strongly urged reverse!”
They did reverse successfully,
Find back in their own bodies be —
Went forth, betimes, to tell the tale
Inquiring minds help truth prevail:
We would save such a lot of fuss
‘Twere understood that each of us
From birth to death lives in, immersed,
An individual universe
*****
The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. Contributions may be made at:https://www.gofundme.com/are-you-a-patron-of-the-arts
