Poem: "Soul Cravings"
This poem came out of the September 7-8 2010 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from siege and funded out of general donations. It explores the challenges of nutritional needs for alien, engineered, or reincarnated individuals for whom a straightforward diet might not be enough.
Soul Cravings
When the soul craves
what the body can't digest,
the tension between
what was and what is
tightens until it hums.
When the spirit hungers
for something the body ignores,
there is not so much tension
as bemusement, tongue and teeth
wondering over the strange obsession.
One learns to balance
the needs of this body
with those of other-flesh,
turning an inward ear
to mind's ephemeral growl.
There is sushi to feed
the memory of needing raw meat.
There are bamboo shoots and even
the white bases of grass stems
to satisfy the restless grazers.
A shapeshifter dances from life to life,
fitting soul into body like steps into music,
never perfectly aligned on any plane
but never wholly unprepared for a test,
always hungry for new experiences.
Soul Cravings
When the soul craves
what the body can't digest,
the tension between
what was and what is
tightens until it hums.
When the spirit hungers
for something the body ignores,
there is not so much tension
as bemusement, tongue and teeth
wondering over the strange obsession.
One learns to balance
the needs of this body
with those of other-flesh,
turning an inward ear
to mind's ephemeral growl.
There is sushi to feed
the memory of needing raw meat.
There are bamboo shoots and even
the white bases of grass stems
to satisfy the restless grazers.
A shapeshifter dances from life to life,
fitting soul into body like steps into music,
never perfectly aligned on any plane
but never wholly unprepared for a test,
always hungry for new experiences.