Dear Body

by Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

My armor, former charmer, once warm,

now ever-shivering, the shell

of me you can put to your ear to hear the sea,

please

Love Me

enough to part with me

before the me

I know departs.

Body, my dear, have the grace to pirouette

away before my speech

is chicken-squawk, before

my vision goes from Seurat dots

to dark.

Job said, The thing I greatly feared is upon me.

Let me forget the piss and shit stink

of my husband’s nursing home.

Let me unsee his gaping mouth,

his eyes focused on no one.

Let me unhear the moans, the shrieks,

the rattle of carts, the strangers

calling, Get me out of here.

Dear Body, let me, at the perfect time,

stretch my long neck, beat my snowy egret wings,

lift off this earthen shore into a sky

the blue of my father’s eyes.