Ode To My Five Senses
Because I am human and have 5 senses,
I promise my eyes I will find more than a screen for them to gaze upon today.
I promise my nose I will do better than a stale room of conditioned air to inhale.
I promise my mouth something more than the sterile taste of salty processed food designed in a lab for the long shelf life.
I promise my ears more than the never-ending marketing appeals offering consumption as an antidote to their manufactured dissatisfaction.
I promise my body more than the gradual, subtle numbing aches of aging into a sedentary life.
Because I am human and have 5 senses,
I promise to observe something like a vast expanse of blueness, where water and sky are indistinguishable, and people could exist, or not. And the hypnotic intricacy or fractal plant patterns.
I promise to study the smells of my different plant friends, like Tulsi, sweet grass, tamarack, and yarrow, until I can identify their presence on a path with my eyes closed.
I promise to test the tastes of different wild, so-called “weeds” in their different stages of growth until I can connotate different flavors with the presence of different nutrients and minerals in the plant, if that’s possible.
I promise to listen and learn the language of visiting birds, until I can track the subtlest changes of season by their mating, and migration rituals.
I promise to shock my skin by submerging in the cold, crisp water of the BIG LAKE until my limbs tingle with happy electricity,
because I am human and have 5 senses.
