A New Tenderness Toward this Body

Poem and Response

Francisco Zúñiga (1912-1998)

Poem by Louise Glück

Crossroads

My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer
I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar,
like what I remember of love when I was young —

love that was so often foolish in its objectives
but never in its choices, its intensities
Too much demanded in advance, too much that could not be promised —

My soul has been so fearful, so violent;
forgive its brutality.
As though it were that soul, my hand moves over you cautiously,

not wishing to give offense
but eager, finally, to achieve expression as substance: it is not the earth I will miss,
it is you I will miss.

My Response

A New Beginning for Our Ending

I too feel a new tenderness toward this body that holds me so tenderly in return, within its soft, wide confines. That moves me and moves with me wherever I go.

That holds within all that I am, memories and emotions that ebb and flow, that mere touch, taste, scent, releases.

And even now, after all this time together, when a foot or knee fails, when bones creak and muscles sigh, and the weight of you seems too much to bear, still, still, you gather me in your arms.

You hold me near, breathe me in, lift me up, and lay me down. You try so hard to be what I need, to do what needs doing.

Too often I have railed against you, dismissed you, disowned you. Let me see you now as friend, lover, mother. As dear to me as sky and earth and tree and sea.

Let me cherish you as you have cherished me, and when the end comes, let us rest and rise together.

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