Duey                              Krizan photo

Instinct

by Janice Dougherty

You stand right here in this very place
With your own unique and questioning face
Because all those who went before
Survived as they passed through the door
And ran the gauntlets of their lives.
Each one striving alone
Yet dependent on what had been honed
By fortune - whittled clean
By storm and famine and all the trials
Of battles, broken hearts, eons of denial;
Tenacious beyond all reason.
Yet endure they did, survive the ages
Through massive upheavals and species changes
All the way up from the first living cell
That emerged from the heavens to live through hell -
Inexorable...relentless...just to produce YOU!
So tap it now, that strength in your bones
The power only sleeps 'till you beckon it: "Come!"
Part modeled by time, part intact as it was,
It awaits your command, it has only one cause-
Your instinct to survive.