.................................
veins
.................................

veins
like bicycle chains
running thick
under the skin
of great
tree trunks.
he wears these
with an unfaltering
grace.
like knotted rope,
rough in innocent hands,
being buried
body-deep.
a monument
to life's obstacle course.

 
.................................
guarded
.................................

sometimes
i begin to feel the edges
and i scare.
scare away from
the things
she sings
in everyday conversation.
scare into shades
of a color
unnamed
and tattooed
on my face.
scarlet letter of a child
who fell
unharmed into it.
the shock is the toll
my hands take
plundering through the rough
corners of my parts.
who's the woman
crouching behind the child's
selfish grimace.
when is she going to
step inside.

.................................
kristin schwarz
.................................

 
Copyright © kristin schwarz
January 1999

...a poem in this room by Jenni Merri Parker...
the story of eleven naval men
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