Blood, Flesh and Bones

O, for thy blessed skin, draping thy torso Radiating key images to beholder’s sight ‘n mind Acuities thus forged, save for the blind Launching love at first sight Much like hair, eyes, nose, lips Whose contours spark admiration, adoration Forsaking traits of souls laying buried deep Worthy of love ‘n awe for all eternity For doth the skin ‘n exteriors Not speak to us or those espying Forcing choices ‘pon us Via seeing, not feeling nor sensing? Yet beneath them all lie our vitals Blood all infusive, red for all Raw flesh, in glistening pinks White fat streaking ‘tween stacks of flesh Deep lie the bones, white ‘n firm Body’s scaffold, same for all After death, remain for millennia, then some Betraying neither clan, tribe nor race Yet ‘tis the skin ‘n façades That push us to love or scorn Redeem or rebuke, reject or abet Enacting blanket measures Punishing for being ‘n traits inborn They as choiceless as we, yet ‘tis bile we pick For the power we have, the power they don’t ‘N all for traits no more ‘n skin deep We speak of them in cursory tones Yet ‘tis more ‘bout us bereft of epiphanies Judging them as though we knew Little did we know, ‘tis our souls we reprove Yet beneath all anatomy, resides the unseen Defining our humanity, our core That amorphous, transcendent, colorless yet real Soul, spirit, essence, kernel Where love and pain vie, for the heart’s space If life’s to have meaning ‘n gist Must cleanse itself of all rancor For love ‘n honor to prevail, our crux to occupy Then gods we invoke Of love we claim they be But only us does s/he cherish The rest can vanish or perish ‘Tis claimed hell awaits, those not of us That gods will save us Not them with skins to loathe Gods that peep no deeper than our own eyes can What’s honestly to be made of such gods?