23/06/2025
Well now Bodyworks Hastings,
Challenge accepted
How to write about massage therapy in rhyme
Without getting dejected?
How to string a sentence
Made of origins insertions and actions
Of client prone
And awkward moans
Of limbs and muscle combining
To ease the pain
To treat the brain
To give us all unwinding
What massage does
Is beyond me
Takes guts to lie down on that couch
And tell someone - sort it, it's ouch
And all of us, old young and new
Find ourselves scanning our minds and bodies
When we lie here and look up at you
The cieling
Or look down at floor through little hole
Clenching or loosening jaw
Thinking of how very alive we are
And how another being
Might ease that suffering
And how I should have booked this years ago
And how it's never enough
And how we move better, glide more, smile more, glow more
After a massage
And how we put the world to rights
right there on the table
And how we realise how level things are
when we our minds disable
and allow our bodies to speak again
of what we're carrying
loves, losses, friends
and all the other jumble that comes in with us
stop
pause
breathe
stretch
and allow pressure
be applied
let go
allow the massage
gently ahhhh we sigh
rise up refreshed
or high
or still a little achy here and there
but know we've taken a moment
we've given ourselves due care
that's what it's all about you see
a virtuous circle of care
for you
for yours
for all
through taking pause
and stopping long enough
to let that body rest
to let that mind have some free time
to do what it does best
and allow some hands-on healing
allow yourself some feeling
safe in the shared knowledge of this room
where you are yourself being
and looking after number one
not in an 80s shoulder-pad way
but through the concentrated moment
of having that massage, today.
x o x o
for Elouise, with love, Caf
