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Poetry

Masterplan

by Julie McNeill

Cogito Ergo Sum:
I think therefore I am.
But what if the only thought in my head,
is that I’d better keep thinking or I’ll wind up dead?

Don’t trust the things you see,
it’s all just the veil of perception.
How do you know that the green you see,
is the very same green that’s green for me?

I know that my thoughts are my own,
so I ask my imperfect senses
to know the things they hold,
to feel their weight, and know their worth.

Even if life’s a deception,
right from the point of conception.
Will I care that I’ve been deceived
When what matters are the things I believed?

When life flies past like a hurricane
which picks you up and eats you whole,
What are the things that you nail down;
The things you save before you go?

Stop.
Take a breath.
Ask your eyes to know the things they see,
and your hands to know the things they feel.

If this is all an illusion,
then I’ve come to this very conclusion:
that all we can see are the things we see,
and all we can feel are the things we feel.

And this is it.
I think therefore I am.
That’s the masterplan.

So when I’m dreaming, or believing,
or grasping that which is fleeting,
I’d better make the thoughts in my head,
bigger than ‘I’m glad I’m not dead’.

And keep dreaming, and believing,
because we can’t get it back again.
It’s all fleeting, we’re all leaving.
all that’s certain is that there’s an end.

Julie lives in Glasgow with her husband and two young children. She has an MA (hon) in Philosophy from Glasgow University and is in her final year of a Masters in Creative Writing with the Open University. She is a member of Strathkelvin Writers’ Group, based in East Dunbartonshire.