Michael Favala Goldman

Least Common Denominator

The body defines the size of a coat, a pen,

a guitar, the length of a game, a meal, a life.

The analogue of its surroundings, the body

defines pleasure, beauty, revulsion, pain,

which is possible through any sense, any

nerves, any heart. While the body takes in

ash from volcanoes, photons from stars,

pollen from flowers, breath defines how

quickly we move, how long we talk

before falling silent, how we eat. In its cage

of ribs, lungs, muscles and flesh, breath is

the builder of cadence, arbiter of speech

and language, communicator of mind and

heart. In between the body’s needs and

limits, we partake of what freedom is left.