A Precariously Physiological Existence

You could always be otherwise
Than you are, and you could always
Not be at all. But then you can’t

Be otherwise, after that, not
To yourself. On the other hand,
Could be lots of otherwise left

For your name and reputation
In the absence of the body
That’s been you, that you’ve called your life,

Your own. Yours. You could always be
Like an optical trick on film,
The person who becomes the suit

Of empty cloth that collapses
In the very next frame, which was
Never a person, just the film,

The person and clothes both involved,
Along with other clothed persons,
In creating the illusion

Committed to film long ago,
Persons and clothes themselves long gone,
Leaving behind an otherwise.