Loving Our Bodies But Only For A Time Poem by RIC BASTASA

i shudder on a possible answer
on the question of
what is it that really makes me desire you?

the temporary and quick answer of course
is your body,
those hands, that hair, those legs, that skin,
i have touched you and it is so good,

but i am worried for how long shall this answer satisfy me
time is staring at me and gives me that quizzical look
of fading and waving
that undulating shape of existence that soon surrenders
to reality

this reality of passing, this change,
this moving away, those leaves that fall and rot and become nothing
but another layer of insignificant ground,

and i shudder again to the next question, as i prepare for the shudder
of my next answer,

i am terrified at last, finding out
that there is nothing in you that is worth loving at all,

that i am but trapped in my body, trapped also into your own body
and we are in this same prison for quite a time

the seasons give us keys of awakening
there is finally nothing in us that is lovable at all

and we see it now, as we glimpse upon the veiled face of
the incoming death

we were fooled, we know that,
but it does not matter now, we have learned and by all means

we are ready to go.