What holds the human body in human form?

Almost a Figure:

Every time I see you I am reminded of Akhmatova
describing Leningrad burning. Each fire a funeral pyre 

of feverish poppies; their reds a requiem for bone. I imagine
the disbelief, exquisite 

fascination of fire & the Winter Palace consumed. 

  People stuffing jewels in coat pockets & mouths
  everyone suddenly aware of what it means to be a
  body. 

I wonder how many of them

  descending through the city 

turned back to their houses. Locked themselves in 

  & watched plumes of smoke sliding up
  to the sky
                  weightless
                                  ambivalent 

  without grief, or need to reach for anything 

                                  or anyone at all. 

Katherine Larson.