Arlene Corwin writes

Body  

Everybody is a body:

Underneath it all, a body total.

Big or small, broad and ample, 

Slight, but never trivial,

Arrival on this planet 

Nothing short of miracle;

We’re meant to love it, but without

The pride of vanity,

For we know, vanities

Are valueless,

The body, paradoxically,

A  transiency;  

One could just say, 

A moment’s instability.

We’re born to care

And not be fooled by armpit hair,

Boob and cheek.

Soon or late all parts are weakened.

Tooled to grow, unroll, unfold:

It is a body, after all.

A million, zillion cells

That only ever wish us well.

Dimply, pimply, faintly smelly.

When each jolly quirk is tallied,

Everybody but a body. 

Torsos weak and torsos strong 

See us through the whole lifelong;

All of you and all of me.

This solely one and only body.

 

"...for those spiritually oriented people who think I’ve left out ‘soul' - even soul has to take a body before it can function. Otherwise, it’s just up there somewhere in the skies." -- Arlene