Questions to Answer

Questions to Answer

Who am I?

A question asked by most people at some

point in their small short lives.

An ever differing question to each that

answers and each that can't.

Who am I, today?

Who am I, at home?

Who was I, yesterday?

Who was I, ten years ago?

Who will I be, tomorrow?

Who am I?

How do I respond?

I'm me, myself, and I?

Aren't I?

I didn't miraculously become

Joe down the street.

I'm still me.

Same routine,

just older by a day.

Yet those days add up,

and they have for a while.

Small unnoticed changes

eventually bubble up and

become big and visible.

A week can go by,

I'm still me.

Just older,

and more experienced.

Grandma isn't doing so well today.

A year can go by,

I'm still me.

Just older, wiser,

and a little taller.

I started writing

poetry for fun.

Other than that,

not much has changed.

Five years can go by,

I'm still me.

Just older, wiser,

a lot taller, and a

lot more hairy.

Gross.

I started seeing someone too...

Decades can go by,

I'm still me.

Just a lot older,

wiser, and tired.

I have two kids now,

almost out of high school.

God, they grow up fast.

Centuries can go by,

I'll have died,

and my grandchildren too.

Lying in the ground

somewhere decomposing,

or burnt into ashes

and spread out to sea.

I'm not me anymore.

I suppose I'll become

part of a fish in the ocean,

a tree on land,

a pig in a pen,

new people and old people living

their lives, 

rinse, wash, and repeat.

Tens of Thousands of Centuries can go by,

I'll probably have been forgotten.

A person, one of trillions, quadrillions,

and more, just lost in time.

Who am I?

Scientifically, I'm a a member of homo sapiens sapiens.

Just a collection of muscles, tissues, and bones.

Even better yet, just cells that live, reproduce, and die.

Or further down, just atoms, held together and exchanged,

until eventually all the original atoms are replaced.

Mentally, I'm a collection of thoughts and memories built up

over time to form who I am today.

Spiritually, one could argue I'm a soul inhabiting a shell,

like a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Personally, I'm just me.

Why do I have to explain that?

Written November 22nd, 2016.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading!