Darwin as Dominie

There’s really no such thing as self-control,

Free will and all that sort of thing.  The brain

Has hormones in it.  It is like a bowl

With soup and spices in it.  Hormones stain

Us where they spill.  They want to be free will.

At least they’re free of our control unless

A needle gives a a soupy hormone thrill

(Injecting as testosterone).  A mess

Is what we are, a chemical muddle.

We rose up long ago from one-celled bits

Of some forgotten chemical puddle

As chains of protein parts emerged with splits.

  We’re lucky if we recognize this fact,

    Not made of stuff that gods or priests abstract.

“Our boasted self-control, confession and penance, reformation, conversion, salvation,–all are determined physically, in our bodies.”  R. H. Blyth, Haiku, vol. 1, p. 253

~ Phillip Whidden