Stands to Reason

If when 20, 14-year-old boys seemed cute to you,
If at 40, 20-year-old youths seemed cute to you,
If at 60, 40-year-old men seemed cute to you,
If at 80, 60-year-old men seemed cute to you,
If at 100, 80-year-old men seemed cute to you,
If as a just-dead corpse, 100-year-old men
            seemed cute to you,
If as a rotting corpse, just-dead corpses
            that haven’t begun to rot seemed cute to you,
If as a just-defleshed white skeleton,
            rotting corpses seemed cute to you,
If as a disintegrating white skeleton,
            just-defleshed white skeletons seemed cute to you,
If as a skeleton turned to dust,
            disintegrating white skeletons seemed cute to you,
If as dust in smaller particles from skeletons turned to dust,
            larger particles of dust from skeletons turned to dust
                        seemed cute to you,

So––What next?
Molecules of memories of desire
Reflect light clinging to dust motes
            floating in shafts of sunlight
                        in abandoned attics
            in abandoned old farmhouses
                        till dust mites magnified 10,000 times
            devour dust motes for dinner
While pure nothingness longs for
Rotting human corpsefleshsmell
Like a 14-year-old boy in awe
            of his bestfriend’s hairless armpit aroma
                        on a summer afternoon
            wondering if he eats his own semen
                        when he jacks off
            will he be more immortal?

For All a Baby Knows

If a baby doesn’t know it has a Mother till it’s born,
            what do we not know we have
                        till after we die?
If a baby doesn’t know it’s inside its Mother
            what are we inside of
                        we don’t know we’re inside of?
A baby in the womb doesn’t know it’s in the womb,
Doesn’t know it’s inside anything,
Has no idea there’s anything outside
            the amniotic ocean it floats in,
No idea it’s surrounded by a living being
            that has an outside,
A living being breathing, walking, talking, touching,
            seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting,
                        thinking, sleeping, dreaming, loving,
A baby in the womb has no idea
            its Mother loves cool September breezes
                        floating through the twilight window
            with cricket dreamtime energy.
And a baby in utero doesn’t know
            there’s an outside world
                        of light and objects
            and other pregnant Mothers
                        with babies inside them not knowing
            and human society and history and
                        geography, geology, astronomy,
            zoology, botany, ecology
                        or an affectionate puppy
            that sleeps next to the Mother.
What about us?  What’s outside us we don’t know about?
For all a baby knows what it’s in
            extends outward forever
                        the way deep sea fish
            who never come to the surface
                        or swim to the Ocean floor
            never know there’s an Ocean floor under them
                        or Ocean surface above them with sky above it
            and think the Sea goes on in every direction forever?
If a dog can hear a baby sucking its thumb in the womb
            and the baby has no idea dogs exist or ears exist,
What do we have no idea of that exists,
            that hears our most intimate sounds?
What do we have that we have no idea of
            that nurses our just-born souls after death
                        with invisible milk
            from its invisible sweet-smelling breasts?