I am afraid to own a Body —

I am afraid to own a Body —
I am afraid to own a Soul —
Profound — precarious Property —
Possession, not optional —

Double Estate — entailed at pleasure
Upon an unsuspecting Heir —
Duke in a moment of Deathlessness
And God, for a Frontier.

Emily Dickinson

I am afraid to inherit a Body —
I am afraid to inherit a Soul —
Deep and uncertain Property —
It’s not optional to possess or abandon —

Just like Duke for a borderland
Not required by choice
Of an oblivious Heir —
On his patriarch’s death bed.

Personality and appearance are inherited against an heir’s will.