Limits of the human

Christian Century, May 17, 2005 by David Impastato

Limits of the human

   One might be weary of flesh. One's own, another's.
   Flesh of neighbor, stranger, passerby.
   Flesh of the real or the imagined lover,
   or secret flesh that mind and heart deny.
   One might be shut of it, freed front the nerve,
   but flesh is merciless, confines us, binds us
   to our servitude to cleft and curve.
   Even You have been a slave to this,
   true Spirit, on that wild night, delirious,
   piercing the meat of life. And since? Scandal
   to our atoms when flesh, merging with flesh,
   happens on You in single, paradoxical
   bliss. Perhaps all earth shall plunge toward sun,
   savage with desire to be One.