Being Human

I look at my son

And wonder 

What to tell him

When the time ever comes

About what it is to be human

Is it to push ahead 

With an evolutionary logic

Fittest, strongest

other forms of ests

Is it to give in

To the tenets of the tribe 

the wisdom of the collective

Whose only goal is self-preservation

Or is it to venture

To go where none have 

To the moon and beyond

To pay no heed to limitations

That our bodies impose 

Is it to think

Or to feel

To endure

Or to evolve

To stay rooted in a past

That no longer seems nurturing

Or to look to a future

Where we are less of what we have been

But so much more 

Is it to love 

Under the light of a moon

That sees no difference

This side that side

All the same 

Is being human in our dna

Or is it in our imaginations?

Does it live in our primate-primitive selves

In the zero-sum game of survival 

Or in that which makes it all worth it?

We write the rules 

We break them

Which of these is really us?