Skinchanger

[OwenEdwards]

I strip off my skins.

First the bearskin,
the skin I wear
to appear fearsome.

Next my sealskin,
my slippery skin,
deflecting humour
and practised intellect.

Now my barkskin.
the harsh pitted flesh
scraping knuckles
and hoarding sap.

Finally
my manskin
this accumulation of dust
that moulds me into petty lies
and broken covenants
and newborn
fear.

I have no skin
and I can feel everything.

[Thoth]

Oh that onion is a painful old fruit to peal and sometimes it can be found that even the exposed core can make one cry.

I loved the use of your metaphorical skins, each very interesting in character.

What about the the skin of steel chain-mail that armours our heart against cupids hurtful arrows?

I felt there is something lacking in the ending, hoping for a more profound finale so was left a little disappointed. Everyone knows very well that without our emotional protection we are more sensitive, be that good or bad. I was expecting to be en-lightened, not given a statement of the obvious.

Enjoyed it muchtly anyway, thank you for sharing.

Wally

[Nash]

Hello Owen, not too sure about sealskin in S2. The fact that you need to explain its slipperiness (which I'm not sure it is) causes concern. Wouldn't snakeskin be more apt, I know its not slippery either, but just seems more fitting to me.

I like the barkskin, quite unexpected. Comma rather than a fullstop after barkskin though?

Personally, I'd lose the 'and' from the final line.

Cheers,
Nash.

[OwenEdwards]

Wally: Thanks for the response! A nice comparison the onion there; that (to make others cry!) and steelskin are certainly other skins we wear. I'll take into consideration your comment on the conclusion, and see if it can be made more surprising.

Nash: Astute observations, all; the fullstop after barkskin was, as you intuit, a typo. Thanks - very helpful.

[Antcliff]

Hi Owen
Liked it. But then I'm one for onions.
Like Nash, I liked the bark.

Minor point, but perhaps worth mentioning.

In second last stanza you have the accumulation of dust doing a good deal of moulding..at the end it moulds you into "newborn fear". I quite liked the image of dust moulding/being moulded. (It could be you had "dust thou art" in mind..and so humans are just moulded dust and so, when conscious, into fear. But that thought goes wider than skin.) Still, my whinge is about "newborn fear"...newborn rather than what...oldborn/quite recently born? What are they? Tad obscure there? (At least to me)

Best wishes,
Ant

[David]

I like it, even though the onion thing, for me, will always conjure up Shrek. Not that I mind that, you understand.

I even like the ending.

There seems to be something grammatically wrong with deflecting humour / and practised intellect - you think?

I'd quite like the manskin verse to be shorter too.

Cheers

David

[juliadebeauvoir45]

I liked the progression of layers and wonder if it would be too trite to name them as I., II., and III while leaving then ending off as it doesn't do justice to the rest.

I think the poem would have benefited from the rich weave of legend about men who take the shapes of animals or vica- versa. For instance the role that the bear played in Native American folklore. Seal skins could also layer back into Norse mythology nicely.

To be honest, even though I knew where you were going intellectually with 'manskin' it still caused me to pause and brought up...ahem..visions of foreskin. Maybe hyphenating or capitalizing would help such as Man-skin.

Cheers,
JB