Fellow wanderer,
Do not listen to other bodies talk about your body
as if it were a picture.
Your body is a moving miracle;
there is stardust in your marrow.
The creases in your skin are road maps to your memories.
Each ache is a letter,
each bruise a badge.
Here,
on this hike,
electricity is clicking down your spine.
Your heart twitches,
your muscles flood with blood,
tendons and ligaments and fascia shift and squeeze and slide and sing
while you watch the dirt for tricky tree roots
and dream about tomorrow.
So, rest for a while.
Thank your body with deep drafts of this sweet breeze.
Believe that your body is your closest friend -
the one who carries you up and over mountains until,
together,
you reach that starry shore.
