I believe I posted this one already, but I figured I'd put them all into one thread.
"To a Saint"
Do not deny me this body -
expression of fire divine
and carnal,
heated with the yearning
of grains toward sun
and waves pulled inexplicably
by the white moon
I will not wear this hair shirt
which you offer in fellowship
I do not desire sainthood
or the denial that cleans the spirit
of its muscles, skin, that wetness on the lips
from loving C
and yet you would become a dusty bone,
flesh and wanting
all martyred to a dying cause.
I Am this form, all of it:
blood, sweat, hunger, pleasure, pain
I Am not to be cleft
my nature inseparable from my soul
your thorns not my thorns
your flesh like a dead man's:
ashen
consumed by an all-consuming fire.
I claim this Body:
it is mine
and you cannot take it from me.
