Explain it to me.
When you say, “Your body, my choice.”
I don’t understand.
Can you explain it, explain it like it’s a joke? Tell me why it’s funny.
Explain it like it’s a dissertation. Tell me your sources, explain the background of those sources.
Your Body My Choice
Explain it to me like it’s a recipe. What are the ingredients?
Is this cooking or baking? Or better yet, no-bake; just mix and serve.
Your Body My choice
Explain it to me like it’s instructions for assembling an Ikea desk. Are there extra parts? What tools do you require?
Explain it to me like it’s a TED talk.
Your body my choice
Teach me something I never knew before today. Crack open my mind.
Your body my choice
Explain it to me like it’s a textbook.
How much will it cost? Who narrates the audiobook version?
Your body my choice
Explain it to me like it’s a letter to your ancestors, telling them how they’ve paved the path to THIS future.
Explain it like it’s a daughter you’ll never meet, like she was conceived at your frat party with “some drunk girl” whose name you never learned, whose face you never saw.
Explain it to the daughter and son you might have if you get older
and pretend to be grown-up and respectable, get married, and “do it right.”
Your body my choice
Explain it to future grandchildren, who will see you as a sweet old man
who gives them candy, pretends to take their noses, magically retrieving quarters from behind their ears. Explain it to their faces while they look at you.
Your body, my choice.
Your body, my choice.
Process notes go here.
Linda M.J. Muller is a poet known for concrete poetry, written and spoken word poetry about family, memory, and what it’s like to be a woman in the 21st century. With a passion for travel, genealogy, and the interplay of modern and historic elements, Linda’s work explores the boundaries of poetry and visuals using new and old technology.