MY BODY

I was my body’s before my body was mine.
Forgive the Frosty paraphrase, but I like
The parallel of the body politic
With the single, weak, minuscule citizen.

For I am a part of my body. The first two cells
Divided half and half, fired the fission ,
The headlong plunge of frenzied redivision,
Until the man comprises fifty trillion

Cells, and most of them he never knows.
They do their job, like robots God-directed,
Creating corpuscles, carrying signals, connecting
Immunities, massively pulsing incognito.

Then I grow up to grab the steering wheel,
Far easier to destroy than to fulfill.

(August 1, 1992)

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