How delicately you connect my whole physique,
The upper part and the lower half into one;
Leaving no organ to be unworkably weak,
Uniting the whole like the universe fine-spun...!
Joining my legs and the trunk of my body well,
Fibers, tissues, nerves, bones, flesh, and blood together;
As a honeycomb combining each little cell,
You have bound the body like the wing and feather...!
Knit into, like thread in a loom or rods welded,
Two bones: the pelvis, and the thighbone or femur,
Ilium, ischium, and pubis - well felted,
All beautifully set as though by a reamer...!
Like heaven and the Earth delicately unite,
O hip, you maintain my physique splendidly tight...!!!
You do not deserve
this nonchalant ilium that remains
and that disarms
for missing my arms
9 11
Oh, the tall towers of Ilium, shining golden in the morning sun,
Are tumbled ignominiously, and a myriad
Souls are turned to dust:
And this sudden host
Of untold grief
Disappears.
Their tales
Legion.
.........................................................................................
This and some of my other poems are available at
https://www.fictionmagazines.com/magazines/five/