Take It Off

Remove the blouse
the bra
the jeans.

Underwear too.
Smudge out
the makeup.
Wet down your
hair, scrape away
all of your polish.

While you’re at it—

shed off the old skin
and permit the blood
to glisten with bone.

Expose your guts,
your lungs,
kidneys and spleen.
Own up to the
shriveled pruned
heart that I know
is there, despite
all of your efforts
to cover it up.

Once the façade
is gone, this is all
you have, and it
hasn’t pumped
magic for so long
now.

10/21/10