Events in the Context of You

For the purposes of survival,
Proprioception is essential—
Here is where an animal begins,

The boundary at which the world ends—
Or, in more human terms, this is me,
And this is where the tips of me end.

In this sense, you’re all of your body,
Coextensive, and all of your flesh
Is you, but there are problems with this

In terms of human self-reference.
Your unity feels less than perfect.
Acres of argument have been tilled

Trying to properly settle you,
But still you resist all settlement.
It’s hard to be one with everything

All the time and avoid injury.
It’s hard not to feel that your body
Is some kind of possession you own

Or should own, when it seems others do.
It’s hard not to sometimes feel estranged
From what your senses tell you is you.

If you’re still unsettled now, this won’t
Be settled soon. That’s unsettling, too.
But why not fiddle with it instead?

Without deciding what has to be
Morally superior or true,
Play tunes on the boundaries of you.

Say, for instance, that this entity
Of so much legal, political,
Economic, and fictive discourse,

The body, your body, isn’t you.
Shrink your proprioceptive circle.
Imagine your body is the world,

Part of the world happening to you.
Set aside, for a moment, questions
About who or what, then, would be you.

Just think of yourself as you, the world
As all the events affecting you,
Whatever you’re aware of right now,

The information senses spin you,
What memory’s constructing for you,
Everything that’s the body of you,

Embodied you as the world not you,
Your bodily events this instant
As world events you experience,

Part of the weather, not you, the light
Of this morning, not you, the rumble
Of machinery, bird songs, not you,

Your body not yours or anyone’s,
And not a single organism,
Just events in the context of you.