Song of the Body

All that you know is through me.

Did you forget that
Your skin is my skin
That transfers the world to you
One shock after the other
Into the dark cave of my skull,

Where you believe the mind to be,
Where you pull together electric threads
Into the images that surround you?

It is I who links you
To everything else.
I am the site of all your encounters,
Of every touch and sting, every contact
With another.

I am your only means of expression:
You may think yourself a poet
But you will always be a dancer first,
It is only through me that you mark the page
Or type out the lines.

It is I who tells you of fear
With the thumping in your ribs,
Of the emptiness of hunger and need and thirst,
The rush of danger and love.

I can be an instrument of passion, or of violence,
Of comfort, of pleasure.
Do with me as you please:
I am yours to master or abuse,
To hone like a blade or fill with bliss.

But you should know that whatever you choose
You are bound to live with.
We share this temple, you and I.

To be
Is to be embodied,
And without me there is
No way to be in this world.