In Praise of Bodies that Are Not Mine by Tom Bennett

In Praise of Bodies that Are Not Mine

I envy the person born with a glass torso. Hard body
you can see through to the stomach where promise
and assurance curdle before they clot the mouth.

Wouldn’t that have saved us so much time
in the shower taking turns to be crash dummy
and crash. Crank the faucet up just a little more,
someone said, so we could see in whose skin

hurt had burrowed most deeply. When you said
any animal I knew I wanted to be a lizard
and of course by evening you were ready
to tell me they have excellent memories:
they never forget all the tails they have lost.

---

Tom Bennett is a 23-year-old poet from Wales, currently applying for PhDs in the US. His work has appeared in Ink, Sweat and Tears and Crossways Literary Magazine. In his spare time, he enjoys walking through the Welsh countryside.