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
Then gods we invoke
Of love we claim they be
But only us does s/he cherish
The rest can vanish or perish
Hell awaits, those not of us
Gods will save us
Not them with skins to loathe
Gods that see no deeper than our own eyes can
What’s honestly to be made of such gods?
Alwi Shatry, Angeles City, Philippines, 18 August 2020