Illeism

~If One Were a Fool, What Would Be One?

First, he read that ruminators

Make poor decisions when pressured

And are more likely to suffer

From depression. Scientific 

Research suggested he adopt

More illeatic reasoning

To achieve greater wisdom. That is—

In round polysyllabic words—

For instance, intellectual

Humility, recognizing

Uncertainty, capacity

To search for compromises,

And taking others’ perspectives.

These would enhance emotional

Well-being and relationship 

Satisfaction, which were, in turn

The researchers’ definition

Of quantifiable wisdom.

What fool would question such wisdom?

He asked himself rhetorically,

But also illeatically.

Bad decisions and depression

Vs. greater satisfaction

And emotional well-being—

What kind of fool would even pause

To ruminate over that one?

This one, he thought, grinning. This one.

~All Immortality Is Third-Person 

Mark sat in the borrowed yard

And thought about being named

For the things he liked to make

Or should it be do or jot

Or copy or compose or

Well really just tap a lot

When was a mark Mark or not?

None of the others were him

And all he was was others 

The main difference was he was

A Mark among breathing Marks

So long as the body breathed

And kept that tag of a name

Tied to various numbers

And coded identities

But all the rest of the marks

He had tapped composed jotted

Weren’t among the breathing Marks

And had been circulating

In material copies

Since before he was a Mark

And likely would continue

Long after he wasn’t one 

Perhaps not as he marked them

~Free of Will

In a rather small body

Of grey hair and spindly limbs

Things settled down for the night

It was never the future

The body experienced

Mostly the most recent past

The future was the abode

Of God and Heaven and Hell

Yama demons and angels

Of all the destinations

One might fantasize or dread

That couldn’t be encountered

To hold what will never be

Within what is of what’s been

Tires a body shy of sleep

At the close of floating days

Finding itself bent and grey

To drop this is to escape