Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

I am not the man
I used to be
not in any sense

I have been rebuilt
a half dozen times
sloughing off my past
for a new shell

Top to toe
each atom
each molecule
has been replaced
like parts under warranty

I raise my refurbished hand
to shade my eyes and
sunlight fires my flesh
with light aeons old

But the iron in my blood
the carbon in my bones
though new to me
predate this blazing sun

My ever renewing form
is a gift from dying stars
birthed of elements
roared into being
at the genesis
of the universe itself