A little love

Yeah, it can be hard to appreciate what is actually just a collection of skin and bones and hair. Just. Except that that collection is yours and there is no other like it. I rather like your collection.

Let's see if we can help you appreciate it too, for what all it gives you.

A Suit or a Suitcase

You ask what I'll miss about this life.

Everything but the cruelty, I think.

But you want one specific thing,

so here -- I'll miss my body. I'll miss

its companionship, how it's traveled

with me, never leaving me--& by me,

I mean my mind. My soul? My self?

I don't know what to call it, & besides

my body hasn't traveled with me.

I've traveled inside it. Do I wear it

or does it carry me? Is the body a suit

or a suitcase? Bear with me here.

I've always thought of who I am

as being concentrated in my head & chest,

as if there's a waterline at my ribcage

&contrary to their density, thoughts

& feelings stay afloat. You asked

what I'll miss about this life, & now

I'm way down a rabbit hole, wondering

if I could breathe deeply enough

to redistribute my mind more evenly

throughout my body -- or soul rather

than mind? Or self? I don't even know

what to call the me of me. I imagine

filling my body completely, filling it,

every inch, to the skin. Shhh. Listen.

Ideas are whispering in my wrists

& all along the shapes of my calves.

When you lay your head on my thigh

when you kiss the backs of my knees, listen,

I'm trying to tell you what I'll miss --

everything but cruelty, but mostly this.

~ Maggie Smith