Let us consider skin:

 

The slight crepe of the neck,

where age-mice have nibbled away the years;

the smooth of the chest, the roughage beneath,

cerements of both the known and unknown.

 

Skin is conducive to, can conduct

and sometimes even generate

heat. Although

this is not always a good idea.

 

Skin can stretch the limits of one’s boundaries to breaking point

and still remain unbroken itself.

It has, as you can see, elastic properties.

Tightly, tautly drawn

it can return to its original state

quite unharmed.

Although sometimes

harm is done

elsewhere.

The color of it, the complexity, can change

depending on location, light and love.

 

Let us then consider sin,

or skin:

and be done with it once and for all.

 

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Published in Six Seasons Review, Issue 1.