Lizard Brain

A Poem

The feeling of being chased as soon as you wake up has to stop

fight or flight, why did we keep this thing, why did we not get rid of it, why does evolution mean almost nothing in terms of the use of our bodies to us

now in end stage capitalism, in the internet age, in the age of anxiety and want at every turn why did we

manage to hold on to the part of our brain that helped our ancestors supposedly figure out when to run from an animal

and when to try to eat it and that we now use to run from and eat ourselves all day long

24/7 in rotation on repeat we do not slow down

we do not breathe

we do not do the things the books and videos we watch about mindfulness tell us to do

we just fight and flight ourselves in ourselves about every single potential threat

and oh there’s a lot of them phones, what is on phones,

hearts, what is in hearts, wishes, what is in wishes,

housework, housework, housework what good are we as a species if we have turned

our bodies against us in perpetuity

what good are we as a species if we cannot go through a day using the part of our brain that they say gave us art and language and logic

and instead we sit in the back of ourselves, run by, operated by, driven by our lizard brain all

day long, ready to jump and freak out, ready to cry and hide, ready to attack and defend

ready to be truly and impossibly difficult and maladapted

because somehow sitting on couches is deemed better than sitting on rocks somehow living in apartments is deemed better than living in a cave

and somehow a 9–5 work schedule for money is deemed better than hunting and gathering

and yet we do all of these things as if we have evolved to know how to do them

when in reality we are just apes and lizards fit for the thumps and

thuds of that prehistoric life stuck and frozen dioramas

in modern dress utterly ridiculous

Jenny Justice brings poetry to life in ways that spark empathy, connection, joy, and feeling. You can follow her poetry at Justice Poetic.