Granta 39

What is it - this thing, this flesh, this cabin of our consciousness, this sailboat of our soul?
The body: we stuff it, starve it, expose it, cover it, excite it, drug it, destroy it. It is the source of our lust, and its object. It sates and is sated. It is the house of our appetites. In the body is our idea of pleasure.
And our idea of pain. It smells, it swells, it stretches, it sags, it decays. It will never again be what is was before. It is our personal metaphor of time - and death.