"Consciousness" (Circa 2023)

Back then we needed a word
to use to describe ourselves
because we didn't understand
how we were different

We could have called it Magic
For it was almost as close
and almost as complex
in its intellectual ethereality

We could have called it Soul
for it was just as deep
and central to us
in its spiritual integration

We could have called it God
for it was where God existed
before he existed anywhere
but within our skins

Back then we called it
"Consciousness"
which is an odd word
because it has application

It could be applied to
a cat, a goat, a good hedge
even a computer--God, even that
you might say that's "conscious"

But now we know better
That our word we used
did a disservice to "us"
Not because we are
especially, universally unique
Nor are we impossible to replicate

But that a replication
of "us" would not be "conscious"
It would just be "us".
And an application of "conscious"
would only be to say
"You are one of us"