OFTEN YOU SHOULD ACT LIKE YOU ARE SEXLESS

which is to say often you should be the bearded dragon 
whose only concern is a warm rock to sun on, 
which is to say renounce the value you place on anything
but the wonder of the half-side cardinal 
at the bird feeder
forget your chest and limbs and skin —
what they say you are

you are not just this body

these hands not your heart
this mouth not your mind
this blood not your breath

all false definitions to make you forget
that you are each breath of air
each precious molecule, which is to say

the cloth on your skin is subservient
to the way the water sings against this vessel 

of connection, this soft animal
known to the world as your body,
which is to say even serpents slough
off their old skin, which is to say 

you are defined by nothing
that does not change — listen to me:

you are the earth and sky!
there is nothing beautiful that is not you.