This Is What It Gives

this earthly dwelling-place
of my soul is singing
a love song let it be
through joy and sorrow
pain and bliss
all ways always

allow me to sing this song
of my body beloved
a 60-year-old newborn
I need

my body is not able
to walk or stand
or roll over in bed
or to shower
or do the poo and the pee
without
the care of a kind giver

am I worthy
is my life a mere burden
shall I wallow in despair and
hold the hand of death alone
I do not know
I let go

I am
alive and
singing my love song
and in love I dance
with the world before me
uniting

each morning my intention
to wake in prayer
a meditation on being
in love

taking is giving and
giving is taking
give-and-take
dancing
the kind caregiver
helps me roll over
back-and-forth
over and over
in the process attaching
my undergarments
and then pants
and now more rolling
back-and-forth
to place the sling
beneath my body
and then pumping the machine
lifting me into the air
and now setting me down
in my power wheelchair
and then a shirt and hat
and now we are good to go
around town or
into the juniper forest
in love

This is what it takes

I give myself over to the river
to the flow
pulsing through my being

through
my being

The beauty
of it all