Before You Were Born

A poem about life, death, and the nature of death in general.

I was wondering

what blind people, well...see?

I thought it must just be

whiteness or just be blackness. 

I looked it up online. 

An overwhelming percentage 

of blind individuals can sense light. 

They can see light wherever it is,

it's just out of focus and strange. 

It's sort of like the first eyes to develop.

Some incredibly early strains of bacteria

could sense light. 

They lived underwater. 

The eyes developed more and more

as the complexity

of the creatures developed. 

They became more than just bacteria. 

More and more species kept evolving. 

Then one species came up on land. 

Eyes had to adjust

to the absence of water. 

Like Neil deGrasse Tyson said

"Evolution cannot just start over". 

When we open our eyes in water, 

everything is blurry. 

We are really just headed to the home of our long lost ancestors. 

Our blurry, fuzzy home that we cannot breathe in. 

I also learned that some people 

cannot sense light at all. 

I couldn't process what that would be like. 

Then I read something along the lines of

"Well, you can't see anything with your elbow, right? 

Well, they basically have that, it's just that they can't see at all through any body part whatsoever."

Then my brother asked me about death, 

and he's an atheist too,

but it's hard for him to understand

what it is like to not exist, 

to not have consciousness 

or any awareness at all. 

Suddenly, I had a sufficient answer. 

I asked him 

"Do you have any memory 

of anything that happened 

before you were born?"

When he said no, 

I told him 

"Yeah, well, essentially that,

but later. 

You won't even know you are dead.

You won't be there. 

It won't be happening to you. 

It's not that there will be nothing.

You'll be exactly where you were before you were born. 

You won't exist.

You won't even know it."

Author's Note

I am open to criticism and reviews. They will help me grow as a person and as a poet.