Contrary

Contrary

First learning comes
With the necessity of air,
Filling our lungs
Beginning
Our experience of the wider world
Milk,
Sunlight
Our own fascinating bodies

For a short time we are
Open to it all
Learning and living
One fabric,

Oh, now and then
We scream
At some painful discovery,
Hot,
Confining
Vile tasting
But only after the experience
After we have tried and learned.
For ourselves

How soon we learn
Rsistance
Before we know
Refusing even to try,
To hear
To give sensations,
Ideas, experiences
And the people around us
A chance.

Why is "no"
So early to arrive in our young mouths?
Must we learn it
To carve out
Our identity,
To make sure that we are
Ourselves
Different,
Separate even from love and
Reason

Is the world so hard
Or have we just been contrary
Ever since the serpent and the apple
Kicking ourselves
Out of one garden or another
All to say
"You're not the boss of me"