How Would You Rate Your Pain?

You know your body best, said the nurse,

And you knew he meant, You are the one

Who knows that body better than us,

But you felt as if the stress landed

Between your and best, as in, You know

Your body better than anything else—

Of what you know, you know your body

The best—and it felt like being told,

Of the vastness of the universe,

You’ve never gotten beyond your room,

The cell that is also the cellie

As well as you, prisoners inside,

The only body you’ll ever be,

But also just one in the sequence

Of ever-changing bodies you’ve been,

Which are also the sole animal

And the territory it’s explored,

And, if it’s all of that, this body

You pretend is in your possession,

How can you possibly know it best

Of all of that, silly solipsist?

What you’ve really known, really noticed,

Is how unlike most other bodies

Is this body with which you’re in league,

Somehow. That’s why it lands hard, the sense

Of being extremely limited,

With nothing but secondhand access

To the embodiments of the rest

Of the beings that can be questioned

And addressed, You know your body best.