Yoga Teacher

by Florence Weinberger

She bends me.

She asks pain?

I say yes.

She knows the soft

willingness of bone,

my rod and my staff,

my stubborn obelisk.

She shifts me.

Considers my position.

She asks pain?

I say no.  She explains

as if anatomy is the only path.

Only a path.

She asks pain?

I say yes and no

for what was and what isn’t,

and still is,

and what will replace it.

* * * * *

"Yoga Teacher" was first published in Poetry Kanto.