January 06, 2011

Body and the Brain - A Dialogue



Said the body to the brain

“Why do you matter?”


“I don’t have to,”

said the smiling brain,

“but to some I do.”


Quirking her eyebrow

the body said,

“I wonder why that is?

After all, I attract

I repel; it is me

who bears a name.”


Little wonder,

the brain pondered

the body’s boastful claim.

“Could you really do without me?”


“Without a doubt!” the body said.

“It’s me they care about:

how I look, and how I feel.”

Deepening her frown,

the body crooned,

“Relentlessly they spend,

both time and money

with little regret.

It’s me they pander,

won’t have me slandered,

so the nip tuck,

and the botox,

waxing and shaving,

even a detox!”


“Huhmm” said the brain

and continued to listen.


“Do you ever get treated so?”

the body asked.

Do they care for you as much

as they do for me?

The lotions, the creams,

the nail polish and the oils…,

proof withal,

that to them I’m all supreme

and I’m held in high esteem.”


To get in a word

the brain did bargain.

Alas! The body didn't give...

“Brain…

you are the baggage

that no one really needs.

You resist, you curtail,

you ponder, and you refrain.

Poking them on their mental might,

telling on all their wrongs and rights.

Why would they turn to you?

You ask questions

they don’t want answers to!

You hold them back

on things they want to do!

You produce their pangs of guilt,

on all the wrongdoing that they did.

Always holding up the mirror,

reflecting on what’s inside,

when all that they want to see

are clothes and TV guides!”


“Is that so?” wryly said the brain.


“Defunct! Dispensable!

A vestigial organ is all you are!”

the body yelled afar.


Tired of all the ranting,

and having thoughts to think,

the brain wanted an end to this,

and t decidedly this it said:

“The beauty that you boast,

has meaning because of me;

without the thoughts that I do bring,

what would a body be!”