Prose - I Am But Are You?
I feel pain
So I exist
I cannot feel your pain
But I can imagine it
I fear for my children
Therefore they are as real
As I perceive them to be
In the light of my anxiety
If I see you
Is my conclusion clouded
By the mere fact of perception?
Would I know you better
Had I never met you?
Would it be better
If I never knew you?
Because then
I could not describe you
And my silence
Might be closer to the truth
Leaving you as everyone else
But deviant
In terms of more or less
Depending on your perceptions
Of who you are
And how you should interact
If I experience you
Do I know you?
Or do I only know you
As I affect you?
Can I tell another
Of you?
Or will my perception
Kill my objectivity?
Is it better not to experience
As a method of knowing?
Is it better
That I not verify who you are?
Instead only imagining
Without the use of my senses?
Shall I close my eyes?
My ears?
My mind?
Can only a baby be objective?
Is pain the only objective feeling?
I knew pain at birth
But knew nothing else
What do I know now?
I know what makes me happy
I see what happens to others
I hope it doesn't happen to me
But I have little idea
Of the point of all this
I know as much as I did the day I was born
Will you live in a better world
If you are not described
By me?
If I hear what you say
How can I know what you mean?
Are you being sincere?
Or calculated?
Are you understanding
What it is you say?
Am I understanding
What you say
When I cannot know
If you understand
What you say?
All I can know
Is that you take up space
And that time has passed
But how can I know this?
I cannot occupy the same space
And I heard your utterance
I am not waiting for it
It happened
And so time
Has passed
As I know time to be
So there must be space
And time
Because I am affected
By time and space
And so I am
But are you?
Does A equal A?
It does if I don’t question
What I see
Or what I hear
But if I speak
Then you are lost
Because I only perceive you
As an object
But do I know?
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