Amy Fleury: “A Body Begins”
A BODY BEGINS
Of stardust and luck a body is made.
First the ovary’s bingo bin churns out
its egg, which waits for the urge of sperm
to meet it. When the two fuse, a soul
makes its way through, and then begins
the and and and and and. Cell constellation
miracles forth a being, a body of matter,
of coincidence, a matter of sequence.
Already light lattices tissues, seeking
the lacunae of bones. What are the chances
this nimbus will survive its becoming?
What are the odds this body arrives?
It’s a cosmic lottery, a blood gamble,
and each body will claim its own space
and favor its own singular name.
Amy Fleury is the author of two collections of poems, Beautiful Trouble and Sympathetic Magic, both from Southern Illinois University Press, and a chapbook, Reliquaries of the Lesser Saints (RopeWalk Press). Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 32 Poems, Crazyhorse, Image, Southern Poetry Review, Los Angeles Review, and others. Fleury teaches in and directs the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.