There are countless ways,
though the body is a machine

for living, and can do this without
many of its component parts

due to damage such as an arm,
both legs – certain parts of the brain

even, when broken, will allow
the body to keep doing it –

the living – though it is not yet known
in which part, if only one, that pain lives

or if, indeed, it is part of the whole,
everywhere, at the molecular level –

and, in which case, how much?
How much should be broken?

 

‘Microscopic’ is from the sequence, ‘Four Essays on the Body’.