Case
Owl asked, "What do you think of the doctrine of reincarnation?"Verse
Raven said, "Not my body."
Owl said, "Maybe my terminology is mistaken. What do you think of the doctrine of rebirth?"
Raven said, "Not my beak."
And
I am this body and this body,
And you are this body.
This body -- this skinbag with names and habits,
AndThis body -- earth and stars; vast, void, unnameable:
How is this body also this body?
Strange.
AndFamiliar.
(How much stranger if it weren't.)
It's like children, how they belong to all of us
AndBy established convention, there's special responsibility for my own.
The general, easy to forget;
The special, impossible to.
It's like that.
As a toddler demands my attention,
And when she doesn't, compels it nonetheless,
This bag of water and of karma --
Of eros and of dust, Auden said --
Requires attention
AndAttending, I notice
The little one's riveting eyes declare:
This body is this body.
Case adapted from Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith Garmon
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