THE STRIPTEASE*

There’s no pronoun

for the body

that’s undressing 

itself. Its audience, 

though, is a we,

an us. It’s

you and I.

We are watching it

strip down  

to its skivvies,

then down to

nothing at all.

We are looking at it

without all its

adornments, all

its accouterment

of story and legend

that we have heaped upon it

by way of our

projections and judgments.

It has disrobed itself

of all these encumbrances

and is now standing 

with its body electric 

laid bare before us 

as Presence itself, 

raw and butt naked,

as naked 

as can be.

Seeing experience

entirely unadulterated,

“as is,” as it were,  

is about as sexy

as sexy gets.

*Inspired by the writings of the Stoics