Contrary to old belief
preparing for the long haul's
not an out-of-body event
At the end the body drops, naturally,
yet the long haul in question, in time,
requires some body of cellular assembly
You forget that fact now and then
and the body has only to remind you,
having a memory of its own making
So you waked up today unmoving,
hardly able to exit the bed, yet you did
by slipping slowly from the covers
A pain had overnight found harbor
in the muscle of the right shoulder
and announced itself, at first gently
By the time you were in the shower
the pain was roaring like a lion,
with thunderous bursts of lightning
The mind's search engine revved up
looking for a cause, a culprit to blame
and the findings were quick to come
You worked out with weights yesterday
without warming up; boo, hiss; then too,
you ignored the daily walk due to weather
How puny the will! Below the surface
the nag, it could be that furnace repair bill
stoking the fires of the unconscious
Or that glass of scotch, making the holidays,
subtracting cells, distracting the mind from
conscious deed
In the shower seven minutes, time enough
for any bath, the therapy of hot water
started to conflict with justice issues
How dare you waste water on your body
when your world has such need of that
precious mass, as if to favor a dearest
That dare triggered the graceful exit,
what's nearest needs the care; before
you can reach out, you must reach in
To prepare for the intense outer duty
you must repair the inner tension, relax
the grip of poor habits, old beliefs
That dare clarified the cause of pain,
as you remembered the reach too far
of the day before, doing the ritual act
To remove the holiday tree from the top
of the van, you grabbed at once its trunk
and the tip of the torso, an expansive arch
You felt so alive as to be life itself, and life
itself grabbed you by an obstacle taller than
your old self, the always already limit
In this for the long haul, you re-learn a rule
ancient and true, Don't let your mind heave
more than your body can hold
