Bodies and Trees

Are we our bodies?
We are our bodies.  

I saw a dead body 

and it certainly wasn't him.

What was it?  It was a body, 

not a person?  

It used to be a person 

but now it's a dead person.  

Very different.

When you see a coastal redwood

fallen

in a grove,

you don't think, "oh that used to be a tree." 

It's still a tree.

A fallen tree,

a dead tree,

but still a tree.

With bodies it's different.

A fallen human

is a dead human

is very different from a living human,

a standing human.

Our bodies ourselves,

we are the cells

and organs and

neurons and

synapses firings and

chemicals and

hormones and

bacteria.

And D. N. A.

We are our DNA. Experts say, 

so...

Dead bodies,

still the DNA,

still the cells,

still the blood

just sitting there in the pipes.

None of the humanity though, 

Still body. 

Not person.

Still 

in fake smiles 

and shrunken fingers,

so...

It's not just that

then is it?

Certainly it's not a soul

we have.

We apes

who are direct descendants

complicatedly selected

from from a million generations,

way back to great great great great grandmother

dividing organic molecule

on early earth.

Our souls are not more special

than the coastal redwoods

or virus influenza.

It took them

just as long to get here

as it took us. 

Just as earth-y as you and me. 

Because we can think

we think we have a special something

that sets us apart? 

No, souls have nothing to do

with our bodies or ourselves.

When we die,

it's because of our bodies.

Our bodies for some reason or other

can not sustain our life.

Our bodies are our own

life support system.

We only finally fizzle out

when the churning

and bubbling

comes to a steam train hissing stop.

Are we then,

the product of our bodies in motion?  

Like an electro magnet,

only producing a field

when the magnet gets

pushed past the copper wiring?

If there is no motion,

there is no life.  

Our heart stops.  

Our brain stops.  

Our cells stop

pushing us through the field generator that 

gives us ourselves.  

When our bodies stop, 

we stop being.

So it's not just the cells, 

it's not just the DNA, 

it's the cells and 

the DNA and 

the blood and 

the electricity in motion. 

It's the water being drawn up the roots, the 

putting out of needles, the 

photosynthesizing, the 

growing one ring every year, the 

capillary action.  

Action! 

In action!  

Inaction is death, being 

in action is being.  

For us bodies

and for those trees.  

Life is action.