I was struggling to get to sleep last night, and I had this realization that Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"¹ has pretty much the opposite message of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Steven Tyler says, "It would be heartache to miss you, SO LET ME JUST NEVER SLEEP SO I DON'T HAVE TO FEEL HEARTACHE AND I CAN STARE AT YOU ALWAYS." Hamlet says, "Sleep saves you from having to feel heartache SO GO GET BURNER, BANG YOURSELF."² Though they deal with it in opposite ways, both of these pieces acknowledge the finitude of the body.

As I was trying to sleep, I was listening to a poetry playlist, which included "Immigrant Blues" by Li-Young Lee and "Modern Sentences" by Kimberly Grey. Both of these poems also deal with the finitude of the body, but rather than proclaiming a course of action, Lee mourns, and Grey says fuck it.

It's an interesting idea because making love uses a finite vessel in a finite act--orgasms only last a few seconds--but it's also one of the best ways to connect with someone else and directly affect them, meaning it's one of the best ways to overcome that finitude.

Hey look, here's a poem!

¹ Awful. Just terrible.

² Shakespeare as summarized by Freeway.

THE REAL SLINGS AND ARROWS OF OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE ARE LISTENING TO AEROSMITH SING “I DON’T WANT TO MISS A THING”

Moonlight creeps through the blinds turning our bedroom
the color of a sweet buttercream almost too thick and rich to be eaten.
Strewn sheets mark an unrest, unacceptance of the finite bodies
that we’re stuck with. Lust is just conquest—life even less.
What I’m trying to say is, darling, call me creepy, but
I love listening to you breathe. What I’m trying to say is,
if the body and blood are eternal life, each little death
is a sacrifice, and we will fuck each other into immortality.

Spreading the blinds, city lights
drown out the stars, so here
we are, our own celestial bodies.
Let the neighbors tell the story
of what they heard through the wall
last night. Let the bedsprings
sing it through the floorboards.
We are god and goddess.
Moan your prayers into my mouth.