The deep similarities we see between how our brains and those of insects regulate behavior suggest a common evolutionary origin. It means that prototype brain circuits, essential for behavioral choice, originated very early and have been maintained across animal species throughout evolutionary time.
—Frank Hirth, Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London, reported in Science
Sometimes there’s a twitching,
a rapid rubbing of the hands,
a longing to hang out
in the corner of the room,
an impulse to taste
whatever is left
on the counter,
this instinct
to be close to you,
no matter how many times
you shoo me
away.
after Fugu, by D.R. Goodman
That’s lovely. I’m not sure I would have understood so much about it without the Frank Hirth statement, but it sets the poem up so well. Prompts the poem really, and I love that you could bring love into it, scratch scratch…
here’s the DR Goodman poem, Fugu:
(The human species holds 75% of its genes
in common with the puffer fish.)
Sometimes, there’s an inkling:
a tickling behind the jaw,
a tingling in awkward limbs,
an involuntary blotchiness
of skin in the patchy light
that scatters down through treetops
as through ocean;
a certain notion of simple
round-faced shock,
spikes on end
to ward off those who prey;
sometimes,
a touch of poison
to make them pay.
Rosemerry, I like how you’ve taken the template of this poem and followed it, while also following your own pathway. How you’ve, borrowing from anon, Trommerized it.
“this instinct/to be close to you…” I’m reading this as coy tongue in cheek. silly and playful, yet also sturdily serious—both at once. is this what we could mean when we tell our beloved, “You’re driving me buggy!”?