i want to be there from the beginning

i want to be there from the beginning.
i wouldn't care if it was big bang or
adam figuring out if being inside eve
was the greatest thing ever.
i wouldn't tell anyone that i was there.
i want to be part of the genesis of feeling.

i want to be there when a man baked bread
for the first time, i want to see his reaction
to the smell, the taste. i want to see how
he even thought of how yeast would rise
and how moist and soft bread would feel
on his tongue. i wouldn't even intrude,
i just want to see and smell a smell in front of
someone who never smelled that smell
and see how he'd respond to something
some people take for granted.

i want to be there when you decided
that the idea of feeling sad was an idea
that you would not be a part of.
i would like to hear your parents
listening to some guy playing piano
and the television being background
for everything else you considered background.
and as much as i would like to tell you that
everyone's emotion is important and worth
feeling, regardless of whether it makes you
want to ignore dinner for philip larkin,

i would stay quiet. i would not try to
deduce or figure out why you
acted in the way you acted.

i would sit there, watching the
lines on your face grow into
the person i met and felt

because i would never
time travel to change history,
or to figure out the psychology
of humanity. i would just like to see
something beautiful.