The Bhagavad-Gita Says
Feb 27 2008


The Bhagavad-Gita says
the human body is a wound with 9 openings.
You can imagine how disappointed I was,
having confused that daunting book
with the Kama Sutra
— not the position I was looking for!

But I counted, of course.
Which is why I’m writing this,
stuck irretrievably at 8.
So perhaps it is meant as a riddle,
or a metaphor,
or a comment on the unknowability of ourselves.

The “wound” I find less bewildering.
This vessel of flesh,
which grounds us in sensation;
which makes us mortal
and bears our scars
and grows inexorably frail.
This mysterious machine,
breathing and beating and balancing itself
like a thoughtless automaton.

And this soft warm body
that so badly wants to be touched.
To offer-up our love
and receive it;
to be wounded and cut so deeply,
yet expose itself again
— its well of hope bottomless;
opening us up
within.