I suppose, with some effort,
I, too, could become one
of Rousseau’s savage men
but I have to ask myself if that
is a path that I would choose to walk.
It isn’t the walking that give me pause,
for that, as Rousseau said,
enables contemplation and not
mere thoughts flitting about,
and is a means of meditation
in my frantically moving world.
And it isn’t the solitude it provides,
the need to be in every moment
with no thought of past or future,
for that is my Buddhist practice.
It is simply that I do not want
to consider myself truly savage,
for I have done my time
in that hell, and was happy
when Uncle Sam gave me
my discharge papers.