Touch

You want to know what I have, and you,
you want to know what I do not have.
Well I have a soul in this body and I
have nerves that let me feel when you
touch me.

Having changed this body more than you
dare, I know that with a touch, what I
feel is as much me as it is you.

When you run your fingers along my body,
my body that I have changed, I feel my
own self.

You could be a ghoul or a robot and still
I would feel my own body.

I'm a mind, in a body, in a world, that contains you.
You are so far away, even when a part of you is within
a part of me.

Again,
what I feel when you touch me is not you,
it's your touch on my skin, through my nerves,
in my brain.

I'm a voyeur. I look at the people around me and wonder
what it's like for them. What's it feel like to have all
that hair all over your body? What's it feel like to bump
down the stairs with boobs that big?

I can never really know.
And neither can you.

(1998)