To be Naked

 
Naked came I into the world
and naked shall I return,
spoke Job  [i]
when stripped by trouble.
 
St. Francis of Assisi
made his last request
to be laid out and buried
– naked.  [ii]
 
Worth remembering
when clothed and warm and fed
and all our moments filled
until we are completely
Un-Naked.
 
Or when deprived, we suffer
each a storied pain,
but, is all lost unless
we are alone  – and
naked?
 
Now, as a daily exercise,
are we ready to possess
only the flesh our parents gave us
then give that up
leaving even our soul
naked?
 
                                                                        (1990s)  

[i]    Job 1: 21,  King James Version:  {https://www.bible.com/bible/1/JOB.1.21.KJV }  (accessed January 15, 20222).    Job says  –
“Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back there.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!”  

[ii]    One of the best biographies of St. Francis:  – Jorgensen, Johannes.  St. Francis of Assisi. New York. Image Books, a Division of Doubleday and Company, 1955,  pp. 273-4. 
“Again he asked his guardian to have his clothes removed, when the last hour would come, and received permission to expire lying naked on the earth [in the small hut].”