Tuesday, 19 October 2021

skins
















between you and me the layers stretch to breaking

keeping us apart

a porous integument worn at the margins

the distance between us



separation is another skin we wear

as sensation rubs away at a touch

where breathing is a mouth asking for a reason why

fingertips say more than speech



between you and me is an outside world of differences

invasion and despair ravaging the flesh

our weakness

our strength tight across our bones



the skins we wear for our own protection

skins upon which you or I lay an arm or hand

to reach beneath

to find some feeling leaching to the surface

hidden in folds of skin waiting for a caress

for touch skin to skin one to one

© BH, 2021 

More about connection and separation. Probably brought about by thinking too much about hand sanitising, masks, and social distance. There it is, though, the skin that defines and contains us but separates us from each other. Our protection and our prison. Whole lives are spent trying to connect and reach across.; whole others to concealment. All the same, there remains a need.


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