Body Parts
by Odin Roark

A body once was
The human vehicle,
That transport enabling
A stay on this planet.

No matter the size,
Shape,
Skin tone,
Or health,
It was always short of the possessor’s
Sense of beautiful.

It was too slow,
Wouldn’t last for that day coming,
Needing sleep,
Food,
Care and touching.
Oh, the touching.

The body hated mirrors,
Where eyebrows furrowed
Over blue eyes unsatisfied,
Coveting brown, green or hazel,
The pre-designer obsession.

Reflections pierced its psyche,
Where once stalwart bones
Became unforgivable betrayals
Of aging hearts,
Liver,
Kidney,
And libido.
Thus, the revolution.

So long ago, that was.

For now the body,
Once of flesh and bone,
Struts its designer label about,
Its brain of infinite power,
Its muscles able to leap buildings
In less than a single bound,
Its beauty always
In the digital eyes of the beholder
Just as Time’s virtual reality allows.
Its warranty renewable
Every hundred years.

And so…

Body past
Body future
Body alive
Body manufactured
Body once of love
Body now of digital obedience.

Survival was never an option,
Save stubbornness of spiritual zealots,
Those holders of yesterday,
Unknowing it was but mulch for tomorrow.

Body facts succumbed.
Body fiction became.
Body future now an oxymoron.

Such is tomorrow’s mental landscape of zeros and ones.

And we think it’s stoppable?
Uh…really?