The body is a thing itself
which wishes to survive.
We might not always imagine this so –
but try getting in the car with a new driver.
Watch yourself tighten and grip
any solid thing you can find.
Listen to yourself inhale and exhale with difficulty.
The movie your mind is showing on the screen –
A Hundred Different Ways to Die in a Crash.
The very same girl who cannot keep her room clean
is setting out into the very adult task of operating heavy machinery
while still under the influence of adolescence.
She’s actually doing well;
cautious is she after she turned down the radio;
careful is she now that she switched from platform heels.
Imagined myself detached from my existence, did I –
from this body, this life?
Not hardly.
This body has a mind of its own that says
I want to go on.
I do not wish to crash and burn.
This job calls for an even voice,
even breath –
while what is really happening is this –
a mind and a body wrestle
in the passenger seat beside
a learning curve in motion.
I linger here on
a right of passage as common as standing up,
as learning to walk –
but just as well might be
leaping from a tall building
and leaving no note behind.
Life as Improv 