i'm considering using footnotes. think it'd be too weird?

MEDITATION / how far removed
from me, you, the Body

if (that far stretching) skin over a body
—what body?
of knowledge
—then what knowledge?
east – Pacific – west – Atlantic – east – Indian – waves
of difference, to which we ask, what differs?
from what to what
do we choose to differ? or do we choose
to be Chosen? different

for skin, then,
ours—have we chosen
this pigment? to wield possession over
a color, the body of which – knowledge –
who can own?

where
the accepting?
excepting? on what
do we meditate?
about what our mumbling?
on whom?

if fear
firing neurons
beneath skin-capped silences:
as lepers and crippled, we wait
at a gate for the promised
angel or god of healing
to dip just a toe or a heel:
then to touch our own stagnant bodies in the pool and be —

as far as the east is from the west, that’s
how far striving
until my leprosy limbs and skin can’t
get me any further; I come to
know my nothing
state, this nothing-good-state
where the accepting?
excepting? on what / on whom
do I meditate?

and down to the river, slipping
bodies, skins: melting these into the ravenous
waves. skin – skinnnn - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - nnnnny dipping this old man
body to death;
I meditate off my wrinkled, old
colorless skin. Now, new

I as far as the east is from the west, that’s how far
have been made /
have been made clean /
have entered His Body /
He has removed my transgressions
from me, you, the Body…