This Body (Poetry)

This body birthed a baby
this flesh once bore a child
healthy in its heyday
such nature trusted mild

Life’s perverse agenda
since severed every bond
long broken years won’t lend her
old love I’m leaning on

Her youth unlocked my weakness
she stole my energy
fooled by brittle sweetness
undermining me

That baby’s now a woman
this body’s deemed a wreck
and blood we had in common
proved thin the day she left