The Rational Observer

I

Am I maligned in the sight of the rational observer?
Is my is, the is that ought to be for me?

Is my ought, the nagging ought,
The shared ought of the rational observer?

I think and therefor I am
Very biased for I am but a man
With my universal grammar speaking
And my universal bias inculcating, a man
Absorbed in the business of manness, absorbed
With my fellows, like the lion, the eagle, the rat
Their business of being, with their kind, armed
With shortcuts of knowing, algorithms of certainty,
For this is how things are and how things must be
And all made manifest long before me.

There is a dichotomy of seeing
Like the duality of the helix
Or of the sexes or of allegiances
Or our decisions to fight or flee;

And there are those for whom the is,
Is blurred, for the ought transfixes; and
There are those who have mastered the is, see
The is for what it is, and see the ought for what it is,
A cabal of biases;

And these are the rational observers.

II

The moment descends and I have fallen into weeping
And I know not why but that I must
Cry, embrace the cathartic surge and
Steel myself against the judgement
For there must be meaning greater than the meaning I know;
And the rational observer,
Who in my youth
I understood as God,
God the arbiter of why,
For what mother would lie
To her child about what is
And what ought to be,
Mocks me with silence.

© Rhett Talley