Mon, 19 March 2007
Bodies This body slid into the world with perfect limbs lungs and innocence for years it did all the things bodies should do moving breathing crying cringing from bumps falls burns bleeding touching the sweet the bitter the sour salt sleeping under blankets and beneath stars seeing objects and plants and animals hearing music and voices and clicks and creaks Maybe we don't enjoy the way our bodies hurt or give warning or the rough hands that press into our ribs the bite and itch and burrow of feeding insects the way colds can be too cold or hot too hot and how viruses and bacteria make us ill when do we learn we're not to love these bodies their colors their shapes the sounds they make? the marks and scars that hint at our most dramatic stories we conceal our bodies and some of us even keep out the lights so our lovers will not judge our bodies as harshly as we do ourselves those who remove their clothes have the bodies we're supposed to have implanted liposuctioned rhinoplastied bo-flexed waxed like fruit in a display ad how do we come to be conscious of bodies and then despire our own? these bodies that entered the world to do the things that bodies do . . . these bodies that cook everything we can ever taste of life (c) 2006 |