Bodies

Bodies, bodies everywhere:

knees and noses, hands and hair,

bodies big and bodies small,

bodies keen on volleyball,

hairy nostrils, lengthy shins,

juicy ear lobes, pointy chins,

straight teeth, no teeth, teeth in braces,

legs that don’t like running races,

bushy eyebrows, sturdy knees,

bottoms soft as old settees,

bendy, knobbly, speckled, bony,

hear the body’s testimony:

that for every shape and height,

there really is no wrong or right –

just bodies doing what they do,

which is to breathe and fart and chew,

just bodies doing what they do,

and every body’s right and true.

© Kate Wakeling, from Cloud Soup, The Emma Press, 2021