Friday, January 30, 2009

January 30, 2009

The human body is not
something I readily understand.
It is not something that
I can hold in the kitten paws
of my nimble brain.

Have you recently thought about 
the rocks in your mouth, 
the little osteo-pebbles that crown
your meaty tongue.

Have you pondered what they would 
feel like if you held them 
like marbles in your hand.  What they
would taste like if you tried
to chew them like a clove of garlic.

And these, these are just teeth, the 
people's party of the bone world.
The teeth are for everyone.  Imagine
now the little ladder of your spine,
your patella and how it sits like
a small yarmulka on your holy knee.

What ape man, with club and heavy brow
first found a full skeleton outside the skin?
What would you have done if you were
responsible for attending the same
puzzle of a person?

I would like to say with my intuition
and long history at my parents' holiday table,
I would assemble it with ease, but I think,
instead I would separate the pieces into
small piles, label this one "long,"
these "bended branches,"  the incisors 
"raindrops," the molars "white corn."

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