The Body: The Soul

—have walked these grounds, have plowed,
have raked the fields with hands as if tokens
of holding, not loosing as, through my palm,
the earth retreats, slips clean, like sand,
from what tethers. The slipping away
through my fingers is not intentional,
like the slipping away of the soul isn't.
The tethered soul was never tethered
by the body: was caught only. This is
understandable. This is not: the soul
as the body, the soul as what tethers it


/ version 2:

The Body: The Soul

—have walked these grounds, have plowed,
have raked the fields with hands as if tokens
of holding, not loosing as, through my palm,
the earth retreats, slips clean, like sand,
from what tethers. The slipping away
through my fingers is not intentional,
like the slipping away of the soul isn't.
The tethered soul was never tethered:
was caught only by the bodies that,
eventually, laid, not rested, which implies
peace and more peace, beneath earth.
Like sand, the soul slips away from
what this long has caught it. This is
understandable. This is not: the soul
as the body, the soul as what tethers it.