Know what’s cool?

The way your body just works.

 

That as I think the words in my head,

my fingers dance along flat black squares

sending signals inside a machine,

which in turn are translated onto a screen

flashing symbols before my eyes.

Giving me the capability to share—

so that you may take a glance and suddenly

know the thoughts that had been thought inside

a brain other than your own.

 

We forget how much it takes to live.

That air must be breathed and our hearts must be pumped,

but even those bodily functions are broad

and fail to account for smaller operations 

only touched upon in the various science textbooks from our youth.

We struggle to remember that our very beings

are composed of millions of microscopic cells—

multiplying, dividing, and dying

right before our very eyes

each minute were alive.

 

That every single second our bodies are serving us.

Yet they rarely complain;

they just do it (*insert Shia LaBeouf joke)

without so much as conscious effort on our part.

The inner workings of our beings are so complex,

running a thousand processes simultaneously 

with rarely a glitch.

Our bodies do fail us on occasion,

but it’s only fair they get a break.

How could one thing possibly work 24/7

and not get a single vacation day?

 

And despite it all, our bodies keep moving—

going through the motions that encompass a regular day

and rising to any and all challenges that we may face.

Each night we lay down and close our eyes,

but our bodies continue to work as we dream inside.

The brain never sleeps,

although sometimes it may have a little fart,

each night it forms synapses

in an effort to keep us sharp.

 

Thanks for being so rad ole’ vessel of mine.

Here's to nineteen years,

and a lot more down the line.