The Only Sense That Makes Any

I cannot hear. I cannot see. I cannot touch. I cannot smell. I cannot taste. (I cannot locate my ears, eyes, fingers, nose, or tongue).

I cannot rest. I cannot wake. I cannot dream. I cannot keep my teeth from falling out. I cannot sit down. I cannot find a chair. I cannot run away. I cannot tie my shoes. I cannot speak. I cannot afford a larynx. I cannot stay silent. I cannot control my congenital flatulence.

I cannot love. I cannot hate. I cannot endorse. I cannot decry. I cannot call upon my fellow Americans. I cannot say that such a thing exists. I cannot discern. I cannot see the forest for the trees. I cannot identify the color of leaves. I cannot know that color any better. I cannot scream. I cannot whisper. I cannot do nothing (well…).

I cannot misdirect. I cannot talk straight. I cannot explain the adorable rabbit scurrying in the distance.

I cannot understand. I cannot help but see the truth. I cannot see the point. I cannot see a way out. I cannot recollect. I cannot experience. I cannot look into the future. I cannot project. I cannot extrapolate. I cannot retrospectively analyze. I cannot learn my lesson. I cannot predict. I cannot be predicted. I cannot surprise. I cannot say with certainty. I cannot disambiguate causation and correlation. I cannot promise anything. I cannot take responsibility. I cannot leave it alone. I cannot forget. I cannot forgive. I cannot be forsaken. I cannot be saved.

I cannot escape local minima. I cannot optimize expectation maximization algorithms. I cannot supply the activation energy required. I cannot stop dispensing energy for free. I cannot turn down a good deal. I cannot think in terms of externalities.

I cannot deny my plausible deniability.

I cannot urinate. I cannot void at all. I cannot stay warm. I cannot cool off. I cannot vomit. I cannot calm down. I cannot allow myself to begin. I cannot stop. I cannot quell. I cannot comfort. I cannot incite. I cannot excite. I cannot bore. I cannot fear. I cannot expect. I cannot defend. I cannot spill burning oil. I cannot close the portcullis. I cannot erect a fortress. I cannot dig a moat. I cannot draw and quarter my enemies. I cannot let them go, either. I cannot stop the forces outside of my control. I cannot tamp down the unruly mob. I cannot remember let alone erase the past.

I cannot speak sense into you or anyone else. I cannot sense where we are. I cannot sense danger. I cannot sense apprehension. I cannot sense pride. I cannot detect regret. I myself cannot regret. I cannot admit mistakes. I cannot accept grace.

I cannot see where things go from here. I cannot tell you that. I cannot let you go. I cannot keep you. I cannot make up my mind. I cannot have any doubts.

I cannot stay. I cannot leave. I cannot defer. I cannot confer. I cannot rise. I cannot fall. I cannot make a conference call. I cannot go left. I cannot go right. I cannot go catty-corner. I cannot believe. I cannot reject. I cannot join the party. I cannot remain in exile. I cannot become another apostate. I cannot blow out the candles. I cannot blow up the balloon.

I cannot prevent forest fires. I cannot stand the sight of Smokey. I cannot deliver water we don’t have. I cannot save the rain forest. I cannot cut it down any faster. I cannot protect the coral reefs. I cannot drop acid into the ocean at a fast enough rate. I cannot fix the economy. I cannot continue to cannibalize it. I cannot reveal my secret plan. I cannot continue to keep everything inside.

I cannot reveal a sense of humor. I cannot betray a sense of humanity. I cannot transcend my good cents. I cannot move beyond the green, for that would be beyond the pale. I cannot remember the color of grass, but I sense it in the recent past.

I cannot smell our founding fathers or perceive them through traditional means, but nevertheless I bathe in their cottony fabric, their familiar odor, their watchful gaze, albeit indirectly.

My good sense, the only one that makes any, has served me well and will continue to do so.

I cannot keep pretending. I cannot dispel the notions, no matter how well-founded they may be. I cannot look upon children. I cannot feed them. I cannot sire them. I cannot lend them tissues or a future. I cannot grant them a smile laden with pathos or warmth beyond that which the planet supplies. I cannot allow the projection of their drowned or desiccated bodies onto my retinas or the quarterly earnings report. I cannot let you print that. I cannot stop you.

I cannot tell you I am J. Robert Oppenheimer. I cannot lie like that. I cannot be relegated to the shadows of history. I cannot deny my true nature. I cannot contain my awesome power.

And so we reach the bottom line, something I cannot define. I cannot continue. I cannot destroy. I cannot be destroyed.