We cannot feel alive
without sensations.
A gentle brush
or a piercing pain:
these are necessary
to be a mortal.
It is only when a
forceful bite
reveals that blood still flows
beneath this chalky skin
that I am reminded
that I have yet to join
the immortal dead.
Yiling Ding
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/proof-of-life-2/
