Are My Emotions Real?

Are My Emotions Real?

Is it true, as I self report, 

that I am repelled

In that moment,

Bending near the ground,

When I discover that the turd in the poo bag,

Reducing the heat of my hand,

Is not the one freshly expelled

By my faithful hound,

But the shit some other dog has left lying around? 

Why do I start to gag?

Either I am revolted by faeces or I’m not,

Cool or hot,

I would have thought.

Is this a subject for a thesis or dissertation?

Would I still feel queasy

If the ‘wrong dog’s’ excrement 

Was warm?  Am I simply disgusted

By taking hold of something cold?

Or is this conclusion too easy?

Should I conduct an experiment,

Launch an investigation?

Is my response adaptive or encoded,

Do I feel this way, because of my DNA?

Is it an instinct protecting me from harm?

Which questions might be loaded?

“What kind of bond

Makes one respond

To the motions passed by one’s own Alsatian

With equanimity and calm?”

For example.

Could one set out to deceive

By pretending all the mess 

Dog owners were asked to collect

Was from their own animal,

Or would it be better to forget the lies

And see if owners could detect

Or recognise

The particular qualities of their own pet’s faecal matter?

I think I prefer the latter.

Would other physiological responses

Reveal the truth, serve as validation?

Or is all this emotion just imagination?