<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Life in a Body</span><br class=""><div class=""><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Francis, who never intended </span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">To be a saint, called his "Brother Ass", </span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">An affectionate name for the beast</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">That houses our hearts and all the muscle, tissue, </span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Sinew and joints that grow drier and older,</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Like late-summer grass, every day.</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">"I stretch every morning before</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I get out of bed." She throws one leg</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Over the other, by way of demonstration</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">And she is limber as her words</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Are not, coming from vocal cords</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Dry and salty as the Sonoran Desert</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">At the Sea of Cortez. My grandmother,</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">That same ninety-something years old,</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Fell and broke a hip at sixty.</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">My mother, sixty-something then, tells</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Me the story—an old woman as limber</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">As I am—all of twenty-something.</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">So I stretch and keep</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Stretching until I reach</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Central America, then east to Europe</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">On to Asia. Next stretch Africa.</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I stretch my heart, my eyes, my</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">mind that wants to close</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">around the known. I stretch</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">against time and trouble,</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">obstinacy and certainty to</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">assure while I live, I live.</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Rebecca del Rio </span></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></body></html>