Chemicals

Love, laughter, learning, being lazy
The illusion of a duality
With only a bit of chemistry
We see ourselves through other’s eyes
Pretending we are a mystery.

We see others and ascribe animalistic motives
From their actions to votives
No explanation illusive
But to see ourselves this way
Can only be retrospective

Unless we understand
That the movement of our hand
Is really just as grand
A feat of complex chemistry
As emotions which trigger the lacrimal gland

If only the children
Knew their sugar plum vision
Was simply a derision
Of molecules dancing
Into a Brownian collision

And the complex natures
Of the nervous systems’ features
Leads many ignorant preachers
To say “here lies God and free will”
Ignoring homology with other creatures

It is not in our emotions
That we find our devotions
But in the commotions
Between neurons and cells
Where we truly discover ourselves

“Our emotions are chemical”
Is not a means to belittle
But expresses the physical
Reality of the brain
Because it isn’t mystical

Note: written in haste and delirium after an alarm was set for midnight…

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