Winding Sheet

Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash

Earlier this year I had the experience of noticing that my body has changed, making clothes that I used to wear not quite right. And now, increasingly, I am having a similar experience with my mind and spirit.

Wound tightly with this shroud--

not bound with nature and dirt and trees and grass,

where I could relax into the soil and let it hold my body

let the shape of me become the shape of all that is natural --

bound as I am, for death.

only stretched as far as the weave of a tight cotton cloth

that feels as if it would never rip apart.

I will use my teeth.

Never forget that I hold the weapons to free myself,

sharp behind the softness of an agreeable mouth