body hazard: stains of life

everyone afraid to be stained by illness,
disability, bad credit, loss of motion or
freedom, the taint that you can’t shake off,
the scar that heals but in a different color
of flesh tone. everyone wants to be Scotch-
garded against mishap or damage, somehow
protected from imprisonment or attack—
as if living in a physical body could be
removed from its experience of physicality.
once you’re born, you’re stuck with nature
and an addiction to air, food, water, and love.
the physical nature of physical dissolution
is what we have. hold on: something rubs off.

4/4/06