30 in 30 2016: #19 I am the universe’s knowledge of itself/Is this it?

I am the universe’s knowledge of itself/Is this it?

At some point in the journey of the universe's cosmic cloud,
it wanted to experience life as me.

I am not sure why, but the universe wanted
to know what it was like
to eat a bowl of cereal
with questionably fresh milk
then spend the night in a cold sweat
spewing your regret from both ends of my body.

It wanted to know what it’d be like
to experience feet that were too big for
the lanky limbs they were stuck to.

It knows it has an inexplicable and unfading love of
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on generic store brand bread.

It wanted to know the easiest way
to fall in love so it decided to make it
hard not to get lost in the process.

It wanted to know just how much
coffee it takes to keep a person awake
after years of bad sleep
and at exactly what point does the caffeine
go from happy pep to excited anxiety about everything?

It wanted to know how much beauty
it could find in everyday life,
but then rent was coming up and
it wanted to know what it was like to get distracted by obligation
It didn’t want to know
what it was like to be kicked out of its apartment.

In me it doesn’t understand
even half of the rest of itself.
It decided I didn’t need to be that clever.

I don’t claim to know the way
the universe works,
or why it works,
or why it wanted to experience me,
but here I am.
Might as well make the best of it.