When we read about the body, we lean in toward the page. We all live in a body. We all do and often we don’t want to talk about it. Start with a part of the body—maybe your feet, maybe your grandfather’s hands. Maybe your daughter’s collar bone. Maybe a birthmark you have on your left thigh. Can we go beyond the idea of flattering or unflattering? Attention brings honor to whatever it describes. It’s so easy to get caught in worrying over what we think is good and bad, especially when it comes to our physicality. And yet, I find that on the page, these lines blur. That even if someone is describing a person who is in a rough way, is injured, or infirm, the attentiveness to the detail of their being evokes a sense of shared humanity and compassion in me as a reader. Even love. Look at these lines from “Face Poem” by