Some Conclusions

down the spiral column
that is my backbone, i
can feel successions
of vertebrae crack.

this osteal realization
leads me to conclusions
about my architectural
composition

i am not the atlas
though there is a world
of delicate balance
set up on this frame.

i am not ninety pounds
of weakness
but my strength is
born of fragile construction.

i am all,
flesh, and water, and bone.
i am an arrangement,
arrangement of the totality,
the totality of living matter.

within this expanding universe
that is me, there is also death.
a knowledge of so rare a dream
that often one does not acknowledge
its pulsating presence, partly
because its essence is
an ocean of silent emptiness.

Copyright 1977 Bernardino Verástique
from Yellow Luna