Mind ? Body

How do they survive, riven   

as they are, the one undoing   

the other's desire?   

Tell the body to outrun   

the mind, and the mind smirks,   

whispering too loudly

this way   this way,   

blocking all the exits.   

And the body, luxurious   

sensualist by pool side or in bed,   

doesn't it hear the mind's   

impatient machinery ticking

it's time   it's time?

And only in our mind's eye,   

as we're fond of saying,   

someone else's body leaping nimbly   

in jetés of thought, or revealing   

to us Act V, scene iii   

in one gestural flourish,   

body and mind beautifully   

synchronous.   

Oh, the mind is eely, slipping   

out of its puzzle boxes,   

loving its own wit.   

And the earnest body: speak of it   

with the least irony, and already   

you've begun to unnerve it.   

Better to let them have their way,   

forgetting about them both   

until they meet again sometime   

as if for the first time   

in library or steam room   

ready to shake hello

or lead you to whatever door there is   

and always the two sets of stairs.