April 20, 2023
You are made of fireworks –
orchestrated Neural networks that shoot
every second of every day
just to give you breath.
The sky, it rest in your chest.
And gratefully rearranges itself.
with every respiration.
Air climbs through caverns,
clinging wantingly and willingly,
winding through the forests of your wilderness.
You are made of red rivers that flow
just to nourish the soil that is your flesh.
Your eyes are stars that shine,
So that people know where to look
When meeting you at the alters
in between your temples.
You, Dear, are made of clay.
Beautifully adorned peaks and valleys,
marked of molehills, wildfires, and brush.
Fiery freckles are footsteps and treasure maps,
leading all those who seek, to your glory.
Your body is a world of wonder,
Casting its own moon and sun for all to acknowledge with reverence –
so, when I say that your body is a temple,
it is all of that and more!
Your body is time and history,
it transcends knowing and matter –
a minute expression of the magnanimous-ness
that is your soul.
And forgive those who tread insidiously
upon your holy land
with unclean intent.
For you glow from the inside out.
So, even the treacherous ones cannot deny
that they seek to surrender to such magic.
Your cells, one by one, without prompting,
they arise anew.
A constant cascade of regeneration.
Remembering the recipes of your ancestors,
and their ancestors, so that you may
never forget whence you came.
And oh, the generosity
that winds and whips.
A helix-elixir of sorts.
Bridging the old to the new.
Fanciful fibers bend and bow,
bearing witness to
the ivory architecture
of your inner sanctuary.
Where garments of growth and of grace
drape the depths of your existence, effortlessly.
Love lives here.
Inside of you.
Deep within.
This bountiful,
brilliant
body.
Ivory Bennett is a published author, poet, teacher, coach, and child welfare advocate. This piece was written as a love story to her own body as she works to accept and cope with Type I Diabetes.