sestina (among us alive)

at first everything is a given
and all rythym is simple music
and for all your questions a reason
and soon you’ve forgotten the nothing
from which you emerged into this time
to be here now among us alive

what does it mean to say I’m alive
to read it once means it was given
that once upon a specific time
a man turned his words into music
and wove notions out of sheer nothing
still he could not find any reason

would I know if I knew the reason
it’s like how the bear knows it’s alive
how the spider designs from nothing
how the instinct to love is given
how the insects hum their own music
and how our bodies keep their own time

our minds demand the passing of time
even as our physics can’t find reason
for why cause then effect is music
and thinking machines are not alive
only uncertainty is given
and yet life emerges from nothing

before anything there was nothing
in the moment before any time
all that would ever be was given
being containing its own reason
and so we find ourselves now alive
in a world blessed with wondrous music

sentience evidenced is music
species that sing will forget nothing
as long as the singers are alive
their songs will echo deep into time
each one containing their own reason
expressed every time they are given

we are all given our own music
containing reason; outside nothing
contains time where we are now alive