IDEAS AND BODIES

9 6 Y I D E A S A N D B O D I E S D A V I D B E R G M A N So a thought is limited by another thought; but a body is not limited by a thought, nor a thought by a body. —Spinoza He knew he was smaller than his idea of himself, and yet It didn’t, for a second, matter. His thoughts were never touched By his tiny hands or by the thin lips that could not help but Form themselves into a languorous sneer. When he made love, Which was rare these days and without any passion, his thoughts Were somewhere else, some place where, if they could not expand, At least would not su√er the slow contraction of his body. Yet how could he be other than disappointed with the fact That he couldn’t rise to the level of his idea of himself. That his self-regard had not become a magnifying lens, But instead was a reminder of just how little he’d grown In proportion to his desires. He refused to think About it, believing that in the distance between himself and His idea of himself was the source of his diminishment. He recalled tales of explorers, who mistook mountain ranges That were tens of leagues away on the other side of the plain, As being but a few miles farther and certain to contain Freshly melted springs and rich provisions of deer and quail, And that the buzzards, who spun above them, had to be angels Because their shadows loomed so large on the ground, and their wings Were as long as a man’s body and as deep and dark as graves. ...