The Last You from Your Youth

The cells in your heart,
Your eyes, and your brain
May last your whole life,

And some of them will.
Your blood and guts churn
Through life day by day.

Most of those are gone
In just a few weeks,
New ones in their place.

So which are you? Seems
Right eyes, brain, and heart
Last long. They’re more you,

You’d think, to read us.
All these turns of speech
Use their names as yours.

Your heart. Your souled eyes.
Your thoughts in your brain.
If so, as life goes

On, you’re more you, or
You’re more those—old parts
Of you. All the rest

Are new, fat cells too.
Bits of bone and brain—
What you’ll leave and what

You were for the most
Part, when you were—you
Turn what’s left of you.