Entering the new year is a time to shed the old and try on the new. Here’s a poem to remind us that change can be a mix of pain and pleasure.
Shedding Skin by Harryette Mullen
Pulling out of the old scarred skin
(old rough thing I don’t need now
I strip off
slip out of
leave behind)
I slough off deadscales
flick skinflakes to the ground
Shedding toughness
peeling layers down
to vulnerable stuff
And I’m blinking off old eyelids
for a new way of seeing
By the rock I rub against
I’m going to be tender again