Skin Again by bell hooks

A colleague loaned me the book,

I cherish the poem… .

The skin I’m in

is just a covering.

It cannot tell my story.

The skin I’m in

is just a covering.

If you want to know who I am

you have got to come inside

and open your heart way wide.

The skin I’m in looks good to me.

It will let you know one small way to trace my identity.

But then again,

the skin I’m in will always be just a covering.

it cannot tell my story.

If you want to know who I am

you have got to come inside.

Be with me inside the me of me,

all made up of stories present, past, future

some true to life

and others all fun and fantasy,

all the way I imagine me.

You can find all about me – coming close and letting go

of who you might think I am

before you come inside and let me be real

and you become real to me.

All real then.

In that place where

skin again is one small way to see me

but not real enough to be all

the me of me or the you of you.

For we are all inside

made up of real history, real dreams,

and the stuff of all we hope for

when we can be all real

together on the inside.

Thanks be to bell.

ISBN 0-77868-0825-X

Published by

Charles Rathbone

Retired. Emeritus. UDL consultant, FIrst UU Racial Justice Committee, photographer, married, four children, five grandchildren. Embracing life, all of it. "Today is tomorrow's past."

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