Say a Soul Is Whatever the Body Is Not

How do you begin? How on earth
Do you end? How do you keep going?

In retrospect, one might advise,
Live so you’ll never be missed.

But that’s a useless wisecrack.
Reading of a survivor

The other day, and of all the misery
The survivor had been surrounded by,

It’s hard not to be impressed,
Simultaneously, by the news’ evidence

For the extraordinary frailty and equally
Extraordinary resilience of a body.

Flesh is soft, easily damaged. Injuries
And breakdowns are common.

But a body does not like to die.
Drag it to the point of death, and then

Watch it survive. How does it begin?
How does it end? How does it keep going?