Rick Belden - Iron Man Family Outing

body memory

my elbow remembers
       riding my rocking horse off the front porch
my skin remembers
       slap of the flyswatter metal wire handle
my tongue remembers
       bar of soap shoved in my mouth
my hand remembers
       spilled milk on the first day of first grade
my stomach remembers
       crying in front of everyone 'cause I lost the fight
my knee remembers
       wait for me daddy before I fell + broke my leg
my feet remember
       please teach ricky how to skip
       pinned to my kindergarten shirt
my chin remembers
       falling out of bed into a
       daddy's mad again hot sunday night
my nose remembers
       can't breathe comic books in ragweed darkness
my fingers remember
       building model rockets in a cool summer basement
my neck remembers
       father's hands closing tight around my throat
my ears remember
       mother screaming stop it dick stop it.

time passes but nothing is lost
I can't fool myself
my body remembers everything.

Excerpted from Iron Man Family Outing: Poems about Transition into a More Conscious Manhood by Rick Belden. Copyright © 1990, 2008 by Rick Belden.

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