This Body
I love this body of mine.
I love it so much I put things into it
to keep it going, like bananas
and peanuts and bread and water,
and even the odd Mars bar.
I take it for a jog round the streets
in the morning so my heart
will stay strong. I meditate to relax
and take Omega oils and vitamin C.
I love my lungs and my liver,
my brain, kidneys and bladder.
I thank my nose for the smell
of wet earth and newly-cut grass.
I particularly love my eyes
because of all the beautiful things
they can see, like the sky at dusk
when it is marbled red, purple and gold;
and my ears because of all the sounds
I can hear - the yapping dogs and laughter
of friends. I love my skin because
it keeps my insides in, and my bones
because they keep me from falling down.
But even given all this, I would still like to think
that had I the chance I would drag
this body I love through the molten core
of the Earth for you, send it through
the searing heart of the sun,
walk barefoot across the Arctic wastes,
endure the torments of Tantalus.
Unable to do any of this, however,
what I would like to do with this body
I love, is lay it down next to you
so that our skins are touching
each other, our limbs entwined
like the roots of two trees,
our eyes reflecting each other's eyes,
our spirit singing out against the dark.
Page(s) 12
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The