Bodies
Every person has a body
trunk, arms, feet, legs, hands and head
It’s not the presence of those parts
nor how they’re clad or dressed, at all
It’s in their junction, their connection
how they’re attached, that physical
attraction lies; and most of all
how they are ruled, subservient to that mind
which behind the face does sit
controller of its every gesture
every snarl and every smile
and every loving touch.
Then there is the case, when someone
having no control of body demonstrates
that beauty ultimate lies not in face,
or hair, or breast, or other body-part;
but in the way ideas expressed, in verse
or prose, or visual art; in worlds
more abstract, more rare, with fewer denizens ?
physics, mathematics, philosophy ?
still these minds do shine.
no need for rayment or for outward show
they stand alone: taller far
than if they used their feet.
Neill Edwards
Spring, 1992.
