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This writing was accepted for publication
in the 84 page perfect-bound issue...
Down in the Dirt magazine (v095)
(the June 2011 Issue)




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“See the World Burn”
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Growing Pains

Roger Cowin

A boy becomes
Uncomfortable in his skin.
It has become too tight.
It presses painfully against his skull,
His chest, his testicles.
He begins to feel claustrophobic
And begins to remove his skin,
Flaying himself like a hunter
Harvesting a hide.
Relieved, he capers and bounds
Around the room, feeling free
For the first time in his short life
Till he catches his reflection in a stray mirror.
Appalled and suddenly afraid,
He looks grotesque
Like a drawing from
An anatomy textbook.
He knows Mother would be very upset
To find him running about
Without a stitch of skin.
But try as he might, he cannot
Get his skin to fit again, the arms
And legs are too short, his face
Will not pull down over his head.
“Certainly,” he thinks, “bare bones
Are more aesthetically pleasing.”
So, layer by layer
He peels his flesh,
Removing it in long tacky strips
Which he drops on the floor.
When there is nothing
But a tiny skeleton staring
Back from the mirror,
He turns this way and that,
Pirouetting like a runway model
Displaying the latest fashions,
Admiring his new, streamlined form.
But what is a body without flesh?
Or flesh without a skin?
And isn’t it all
Just a jar to bottle the soul?
Later, Mother arrives home
And cannot find the boy anywhere,
Only a few spare organs
And some discarded skin.
“Messy boy,” she thinks,
“Leaving all this viscera
Lying about.
Just wait
Till his father gets home.”



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