wrob explains everything

(There's an unspoken conceit that any poem which needs explaining probably isn't good. Codswallop. Oh, in some cases perhaps, but with due respect to those who feel that poetry is essentially subjective...most of the time, i suspect poets know EXACTLY what they have in mind. I'm going to deconstruct one of my poems, something i've never done before. I do this because it might be a poem of incalculable importance, the most morally/spiritually advanced thing i'll ever set down. And it also might be a century or more before the average person understands what i'm talking about. That's too long.)

EVERYTHING
When i think of friendships lost
we poisoned sex...
Friendships that should have been
we poisoned sex...
Joys betrayed by jealous greed
we poisoned sex...
The incarceration in carnal isolation
we poisoned sex...
Sex took our touching
Sex took our belonging
Sex took our healing
Sex took our sex
we poisoned sex, then sex poisoned everything
http://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2011/01/sex.html

Think of every romance you ever had...every boyfriend/girlfriend, lover, or significant other. Put them all together in one room in your mind. Wait a second for everyone to catch up (some people are knocking down walls, and wondering if the corner bodega has enough salsa). Now, look around the room. At some point in your life, you felt an intense connection to each one of these people. An intense desire to care for and protect them. To fill them with joy. And for at least a moment in time, these people felt the same for you. Look at them...and tell me how many are still a part of your life? Eliminate those who are around in some obligatory, contentious way. How many? Twenty percent? Ten? Less? These are the people who were most intensely interested in you...moreso than almost all your non-romantic friends and family members. But they're not with you. They're gone, like they were never there. Now clear your mind...and imagine these people are still in your life. Whatever part of you they were able to love, they still do. Every single one of them.
Would you suddenly have more friendship and love than anyone you've ever known?
Now think about platonic relationships you've lost because of sex. That friend who was crazy about the same person you were crazy about, but only one of you had the nerve to go after. Or the friend who had a hidden fling with your sister/brother. Or the friend you thought was soooooo cool, until their unwelcome secret was revealed (they wanted to be "more" than friends). Or that family member who has never forgiven you for forgiving (blank) after he/she cheated on (blank).
Now...imagine a world in which you've been held and touched every single day of your life, and have sex whenever you want. A world where anyone you desire, is happily receptive. It goes the other way, too. If anyone desires you, nothing makes you happier than giving them that happiness.
Ridiculous? Inane?
Loneliness is far and away the most prominent, universal feature of this society. Even during our most intimate acts, or in the midst of a crowd, we all lead lives of crippling, encompassing isolation. One in which sex is never a gift, but always a bargaining chip. We poison sex with jealousy, competition, and the tyranny of searching for that one love who will cleave to us "forever". And when you think you've finally found it, the two of you isolate yourselves from the world, until you can't stand the sight of each other. You might have even brought a child into the world, to whom you gave your sickness.
But that other life, that ridiculous, inane dream, is the one you were born for. The one that's in your DNA, the one that five million years of human existence prepared you for.
Your birthright.
Look what we've done with it.
For five million years, humans lived in foraging societies. As recently as a few hundred years ago, most of the planet was still occupied by foragers. Foragers have no notion of private property. They share a sense of belonging that is incomprehensible to us. Try to imagine growing up in a world where every adult is your "parent", and no one would ever hurt you.
Ask yourself what we've traded that for.
And think, just think, of all the love that should have been a part of your life, that sex took away. This isn't abstract. For each of us, life is one long unspooling of lovers and friends who disappear, leaving us alone...
To move on...
To the next person we'll disappoint. And be disappointed by.
It's time to awaken, and arise.

(for further reading: http://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2012/02/sex-at-dawn.html)