Waving Goodbye || Gerald Stern

I wanted to know what it was like before we
had voices and before we had bare fingers and before we
had minds to move us through our actions
and tears to help us over our feelings,
so I drove my daughter through the snow to meet her friend
and filled her car with suitcases and hugged her
as an animal would, pressing my forehead against her,
walking in circles, moaning, touching her cheek,
and turned my head after them as an animal would,
watching helplessly as they drove over the ruts,
her smiling face and her small hand just visible
over the giant pillows and coat hangers
as they made their turn into the empty highway.

--

I wanted to know what it was like before we
had voices and before we had bare fingers and before we
had minds to move us through our actions
and tears to help us over our feelings,

I am not quite sure if being conscious of your action defeats the purpose but what is special here is human emotion and the mere feeling of "being there". Like an animal would, sometimes it is indeed better to just let go. But being human, sometimes we have to force ourselves to let go just to have a tiny glimmer of feeling it.