skin
Skin
The snake sheds his skin
As the way to begin
His great belief in
The redemption of sin
Like me who’s slithered
Through slime and sludge
Self accuser,
Jury, Judge
Unable often
To shake the grudge
Against myself
Desperate dark ignominy
Cruelly barring me
From that road of happy destiny
Where I would clearly, dearly
Love to trudge
Wearing unworthiness
Like battle armor
Makes me wonder
If others are more
Able to lose
The constraining cloak
Where I comfortably bleed
Hair shirt raging, red-soaked
Never bothering once
To question the yoke
Of hissing self-hatred
Thorny crown that cruelly pokes
These hellish holes
Upon my brow
But through which, I pray, someday,
Serenity can seep, somehow!
Barbs tearing at the hide
That has kept His peace out
His Forgiving Faith
In Me! To Him I now shout! …
”Slough off this shame
Slough off this fear
Slough off this skin
That binds me here!”
Ever enmeshed
With my fight of the flesh
But in this quixotic quest
Blessed chance to start afresh
Thus like the serpent
So long reviled
I allow myself
A secret smile
For in my heart
Beyond self-damnation
I find clues that I am loved
Even vital in His vast creation
And my wreckage of past?
Can I e’er shed this execration?
To sing with joy “Free at last!”
And believe that declaration
contact me
Introduction to "Skin"
