Poem for the week: "I Have Lived the Life"

I Have Lived the Life

I have lived the life of an atom in the Body

of God, an embryonic soul with consciousness

but no reflective self-consciousness;

And I have lived the life of a higher primate,

with a power grunt that granted me alpha

status and garnered me self-reflection;

And I have lived the life of a Roman gladiator,

my name was Glaucas, and I was feared

with respect beyond terror;

And I have lived the life of a privileged Roman

nobleman, but I fell in love with a servant woman

with whom I share my life today;

And I have lived the life of an ancient Greek

statesman, my name was Phaedrus, and I was a

student of the philosopher Pythagoras;

And I have lived the life of a North American

Indian, my name was Bear Claw, and I

became the chief of my village;

And I have lived the life of Solomon, a black slave

in the state of Georgian, and when I got caught

for running away, I was whipped to death;

And I have lived the life of a Cockney fishmonger,

pushing my cart through the streets of London,

shouting “Kippers! Fillets!” for my living;

And I have lived the life of a mendicant Sufi in

Medieval Persia, living the secret way, but my love

for God and sexual pleasure drove me insane;

And I have lived the life of debauchery in Paris, France,

and I turned on God, Jesus, and the Holy Mother

Church, and I died in pitiless disgrace;

And I have lived the life of a textile merchant in

Genoa, Italy, Don Giovanni was my name, and I broke

my wife’s heart, who is my partner today;

And I have lived the life of an aristocrat in London,

the Earl of Wellington Manor, but I sailed to the new 

land of the Americas and become a fur trapper;

And I have lived the life of the man I am today in a

parallel world, returning to my same life again

to achieve a different outcome;

And I have lived the life of a precocious writer

in a future life, and of all the lives that I have lived,

my current lifetime has been the hardest.