Against Our Nature

When we find a thing easy we say it comes naturally,
by instinct. As if we mean our awkward human apparatus
has been ambushed by its elemental form. As if our arms,
draped even in silk or linen, our feet in their uncomfortable shoes,
can lead us back to the body’s natural efficiencies.
To the whale who can find the distant krill-rich waters and feed.

It is a relief to turn away from the fashionable heart with its fickle complications,
a pleasure to find the one that thuds away steady and free. Our destiny.
The uncorrupted chemical places that, like electrons and neutrinos,
keep nothing inside themselves but themselves.

So we learn to catch ourselves by throwing out our hands,
and we learn to walk because our bones find it pleasing,
but why should that make it any less marvelous?
We hear our names called and we answer.
Add cream to our coffee by feel. The song, the evening bath occupy
and overtake us. Not by proxy, but whole.

Susan Hutton