Half of Me Is Aching

A pretty little microbe

is happily boring my tooth.

The right side of the world

turns suddenly poignant.

The body, after all,

is just a rotting house.

From the half of me aslosh with liquid painkillers

black fire leaps.

You hold out both your hands,

one catches me,

one grabs at opaque air.

Pain is also life

we can never suppress.

Sit down, stand up,

let the wind blow this side and that.

Only when pain flares

do I see the world’s not ordinary.

We’re unhealthy

yet still want to walk here and there.

My painfree half

is obsessed with you.

My left hand opens the door for you.

The right side of the world

dazzlingly bright.

Pain’s long hair

whirls into a jungle.

That ‘s me too,

another good woman.