Poem Beginning with a Line by My Son Junuh

Every head should have a body.

Every body
            a soul the size
                        of a jukebox loaded

with tunes our bodies know without us.

My hips begin
            to remember
                        the pleasure I was born to

my mouth to hum the songs I never knew

I didn’t know.
            My body
                        moving alone among others moving

and singing until I am one with the other

bodies 
            my soul sings to.
                        Each honkytonk hymn making holy

what my head forgot to love.
Credit

From Filched (Dos Madres Press, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by James Tolan. Used with the permission of Holly Messitt.