Give Us This Day Our Daily Poem

Be Ye Therefore by Heather Bergevin

She says in class,

well at least in the resurrection

we won’t have to worry

about being fat, as if

fat was the worst, most corrupted

Sin of seven (as if it

is sin at all, and fully

within our realm of control.)

We use these magical thoughts,

in order to prevent

Cancer/accident/divorce/disease

with our sheer force of

will and righteousness, so I

presume they think Fat the worst

thing to be

next to dead. It leaves me

wondering, what else do we

expect to lose, in losing

mortal corruption? I would miss

my freckles, that tiny

flowering birthmark just

below my breast, on the back

of my wrist, of my neck.

They are melanin, not corruption,

nor would be your beautiful

olive skin, or golden, browns

of sparkling epidermal variation;

There can be no

perfection justified in

monochromatic homogenization.

I anticipate

my infections, my breaks gone

and pain sealed away, that I will

finally run

and not be weary, walk

and not faint, stand

without sharpness. I know we all

would like our reuptake receptors

for serotonin transmitters

to be slightly less quick,

to lead to less anxiety and

tendency to depress by its

errored efficiency. I’d love

to keep the knowledge earned

through chronic illness, but not

the pain. Perhaps my stretch

marks and wrinkles, are of little

concern, in the end.

I’d try to keep

my belly button; after all, I love

souvenirs. Perhaps, if

Christ, in his shining, glorious

Perfection, fully uncorrupted

could keep his scars,

of mortal brokenness of mankind

and bold body mortality,

and be Complete,

then so can I.