When Push Comes to Shove

A righteous  man regardeth the life of his beast.

—Proverbs 12:10

 Life is a duty, an obligation. Consequently, love is a duty, too.

—Goncharov, Oblomov, pt. 2, ch. 2

 We are obliged to live, and so to love—

Is that a principle I should approve?

Are there in fact such rules for love to be?

I am too old to have fresh tasks revealed

That have lain hidden in some dingbat way.

Word from above arriving every day,

They say it’s best to leave the beast concealed.

But soon there’s shelter, at the last remove,

When push, O fond companion, comes to shove,

And, wanting motives, seeks to call it love,

As if that were an outcome one could see,

A world appears.* But is that world for me?

I’m not that old; old age has been repealed.

Tender mercies, behold the beast unsealed!

*  “I open my eyes and a world appears.”—Anil Seth, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (Dutton. 2021), 79. I steal this from Michael Pollan’s book A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness (Penguin Press, 2026). But he stole it himself, so he can’t complain!

A poem very much in progress.

Friday, July 10, 2026