A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body Life, Consciousness, and Existence Quotes

Here's what realllly bugs the soul: the body's instinct for survival. It uses everything it has—its immune system, its ability to walk to the pharmacy to get medicine, its capacity for hope—to fight off death. This is exactly what the soul does not want. What could be more annoying than watching your sworn enemy use your own skills against you? Hello? I'm the reason you can even feel hope.

Not only does the soul have to suffer through the body's diseases, forced to translate physical symptoms into conscious thoughts like, "Ugh, I want to puke"; it also has to endure being cured, knowing that death would set it free.

The soul's longing for death sets up this perfect paradox at the end of stanza three: just as it's about to bump up against the dock of death, the body sinks it back into life.