Bed

In Praise of My Bed
By Meredith Holmes

At last I can be with you!
The grinding hours
since I left your side!
The labor of being fully human,
working my opposable thumb,
talking, and walking upright.
Now I have unclasped
unzipped, stepped out of.
Husked, soft, a be-er only,
I do nothing, but point
my bare feet into your
clean smoothness
feel your quiet strength
the whole length of my body.
I close my eyes, hear myself
moan, so grateful to be held this way.

Meredith Holmes, "In Praise of My Bed" from Shubad’s Crown. Copyright © 2003 by Meredith Holmes. 

Reconfiguring my life, I lie in bed and gaze at my new picture of four women not lying in bed.

I have been young like them, though I never ran like that, with so much pleasure, in all my life. They are to my eyes a metaphor for the joy of running for various dreams and goals and purposes. I stretch and push aside the covers, and then I think better of it and take my pre-loved body back for another solitary cuddle in my bed.