Body Soul Poem: A Small Comfort During Transition

I always thought my birthday should be more of a wedding ceremony

White dress gathering lace at the hem

Standing before an alter

Whispering my love letter to my body and back again

Before she and I sat in perfect harmony all smiles and radiant confidence

At last saying “I do” before we blew out the candles on my birthday cake.

I always believed in my body being separate from my soul.

This figure before you mouthing words

Fingers brushing over a keyboard

Eyes slanted down to look at words on a computer screen

Is the body I chose to stay with until she is too old to carry me any longer.

I will love and live with her until the day she dies

See me

I have no gender.

I am the soul that chose to hold her the day I saw her curled in her mothers womb.

I am the entity that decided to fall in love the moment her cells started to multiply.

These words written by her fingers and mouthed by her lips

Were thought by me.

I sit behind her eyes and in her heart

There is no place in her that I have not joyously explored

And the beauty of watching her grow Is something almost spiritual.

She is a small thing,

Pretty in her delicate nature

She argues with me from time to time, as in all relationships

Bones creaking in protest to falls and bumps.

She’s sometimes clumsy but other times extremely agile

And on some nights I like to drink in her slim muscled beauty

Knowing that before all this started I spent sleepless nights wandering galaxies

Trying to find just the right wrists and arms to wrap myself in

Just the right ribcage to hold me close

Just the right legs who would be willing

Out of love

To carry me thousands of miles and not finding the right fit

Until her.

See she accepted me the moment I laid eyes on her.

Open armed and strong legged

Her heart beats blood that keeps me alive

Her brain functions as a makeshift home for me to rest in

And I am grateful.

I do not view her as ugly.

How anyone can look at the relationship of their bodies and themselves

And choose to call their partner anything less then beautiful

Is beyond me.

I think we forget this relationship exists

And the impacts it has both on us

The souls

And them

The beautiful bodies that accepted to carry us

And care for us until the day they die

Is astounding.

Your body allows you full control.

It does not fight back when it is being starved or mutilated

It does not raise its voice in protest

Though in reality it is the one with the vocal chords.

It does not complain when you call it ugly or wrong

Or poke at its hips or arms saying it is too fat or too slim

It welcomes all we have to give and take from them and in that sense

Our bodies are selfless.

How we can choose to hate them,

Hurt them,

Bruise them and even completely destroy them before their due time

Is a reflection on us

And how little we cherish this selfless

In some ways divine,

Acceptance and control that our bodies willingly allow us to have

Even when being abused.

Us, as souls, may live through thousands of bodies and yet

Your body lives only once

A single blink of an eye on a cosmic scale

And it choose that time,

100 years or less

To love and care for you.

Don’t call him or her ugly.

Don’t be frustrated with their gender

Sometimes a soul needs to be understanding enough

To help a body change from male to female or vise versa.

Sometimes a soul must be artistic enough to decorate a body in ink and jewelry

To tell the story of their love without words

Sometimes a soul must be strong enough to withstand a bodys' weakness

Be it missing limbs or defective organs

And choose to love and cherish it anyways.

I always thought my birthday should be more of a wedding ceremony

White dress gathering lace at the hem

Standing before an alter

Whispering my love letter to my body and back again

before she and I sat in perfect harmony all smiles and radiant confidence

at last saying “I do” before we blew out the candles on my birthday cake

Because it is another year gone by between us as a team

Where she and I are equals.

There isn't any love stronger then a heart that beats for you

Lungs that breathe for you

Legs that walk for you

Just for you

And no one else.

In sickness and in health

Until death do us part

Happy Birthday.