1 Washing and Drowning
We are drowning
In a sea of things
And ideas.
Drowning.
And yet we are obsessive about washing.
The man who never washed during his lifetime
Of 94 years
Died recently.
Under pressure he washed
And died shortly after.
2 Water
We drink water and wash with it,
Wash our cars with it
And boat on it.
We use it to make coffee
And to flush our waste
Out of sight and mind.
3 Whales
Did you know that
At extreme depths of the ocean
The water doesn't move
And whales have learned to use it
As a medium for sounding
For thousands of miles?
4 Dragonflies
Dragonflies and damselflies
Belong to an order of insects called Odonata
That spends its juvenile life
In the water and
Its adult life in the air and on land.
Did you know that
Dragonflies
Survived the asteroid Chicxulub
Which generated a tsunami one mile high
That scoured the ocean bottom
For thousands of miles?
5 Dragonflies and whales
Dragonflies
Have been around
For over 300,000,000 years.
One might argue that they are
The perfect creation.
But whales come even closer
To a perfect creation.
(Whales do not wash.
Dragonflies do not wash.)
6 Humans and washing
Where has washing gotten us,
Really?
Footnote: I give you Napoleon and Trump.
Maybe we should all stop washing.
I'm willing to try
Just about anything
At this point.
............................................
The inspiration for this poem is an article in BBC World: Click Here
"A hermit dubbed by media as 'the world's dirtiest man' has died at the age of 94, just months after having his first wash in decades."
I am saying we are washing while we are drowning, which is absurd but metaphorically accurate. We are obsessively washing off the "germs" and dirt of the world, while we are drowning in an ocean of things and ideas. The human race (or some evolutionary version of Homo sapiens) has only been around for about 1,000,000 years. Dragonflies, 300,000,000 years and whales about 30,000,000 years. Implied is that the human race is an imperfect and probably doomed (self-dooming) species while whales (who live in water) and dragonflies (who are born in water), are arguably perfect creations. If it wasn't for us, dragonflies and whales could probably go on virtually indefinitely. The joke is that whales and dolphins don't wash and they are perfect whereas humans, who are on a fast track to destroy themselves and planet Earth, wash, so maybe if humans stop washing they will begin to evolve differently which might be an improvement.
If you decide to join the DON'T BOTHER WASHING MOVEMENT, here is a list of times you don't have to bother washing your hands:
- Before, during, and after preparing food
- Before and after eating food
- Before and after caring for someone who is sick
- Before and after treating a cut or wound
- After using the toilet
- After changing diapers or cleaning up a child
- After blowing or picking your nose, coughing, or sneezing
- After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
- After handling the remote
- After touching garbage
- After using a public phone
- After pumping gas
- After shaking hands with someone
- After handling money
- After handling a doorknob in a public building
Finally, a word about why the Roman Numerals: I use RNs for when I am writing something that coheres by linking disparate metaphors, like a chain, but not a heavy chain of iron. More like a wooden chain. I'm not trying to jerk people around or confuse. Picture driving through an old neighborhood where each modest house you pass is unique but they somehow belong together and form a neighborhood. That's the idea.
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