No Skin
As it grows hotter year by year,
then month by month,
we hide in our caves for protection,
for there is no skin to our world.
The aqua sky?
Gone, my friends,
Replaced by fire.
The mountains are obscured by fire,
obscured again by smoke that still, alas,
is not a skin.
No skin. No. No skin left for our world.
No skin.
Our water boils in its pipes. No cool succor there.
We are all caught in the too-long day
That fades into inevitable night.
We lie awake,
our minds throbbing to music from the drum of the moon
that leads us into dreams
where we forget the large lie and remember, finally, that
the sins of the heart are not just theater
but reflect the sins of mankind,
who for purses of gold
have sold our world.
Now we all cook in the pan of their greed,
the protective skin of our world
sold off year by year
for yachts and palaces that share
the same vanished sky of the houses
where we cower for protection from that once-benevolent sun
under which in the past we spread ourselves to receive those rays
now turned lethal in this skinless world.
For this dVerse Poets prompt, we were to write a new poem that included 13 lines from a famous poem or one of our own old unpublished poems. I based my poem on these fragments from a poem I wrote years ago entitled “Evil World Scenario.”
No skin there.
The aqua sky?
Gone, my friends,
Replaced by fire.
No skin. No. No skin left for our world.
No skin.
We are all caught in the too-long day
That fades into inevitable night.
We lie awake,
Our minds throbbing to music from the drum of the moon
That leads us into dreams–
Where we forget the large lie and remember, finally, that
The sins of the heart are just theater.
To read other poems written to this prompt, go HERE.
A profound message
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Judy, your fragment poem is beautifully stitched together … and in a frightening way reminds me our ‘wildfire season’ is soon upon us.
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Thanks, Helen..Ours has already hit but a nice rain last night is the beginning of more I hope!!!!
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Nice expansion, Judy. This is vivid and potent:
Now we all cook in the pan of their greed,
the protective skin of our world
sold off year by year
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Thanks, Lisa. I didn’t have long to work on it, but an interesting exercise.
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You’re welcome.
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The greedy will perish along with the rest of us. Little consolation, alas.
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Yes.. I had the same thought.
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I just wish I could say it was chilling…. but very very scary…
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I know..The powers that be are so busy fighting each other they overlook the bigger threat to us all.
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For the entire world..you and me included.
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