skin

I sing of skin whose colors shame the dawn
​
Glistens, flushes, perspires, pales, furrows, tingles, itches, glows
Flushes, perspires, furrows, crawls, tingles, itches
Pleasures and pains us all our days

Sing, skin, singular, seamless stocking
There exists the rosy coast, these estuaries of pearl

Excerpts from “The Exact Location of the Soul,” “The Surgeon as Priest,” “The Knife,” “Skin,” and “The Corpse” from MORTAL LESSONS by Richard Selzer. Copyright © 1974 and renewed 2002 by Richard Selzer. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.