"These Things"

Every day they find
Something good about me;
I'm taunted by my talents and
Burdened by my faith.
They all think they're so good for me
So all they do is smile.
They smile and unfog my eyes
From the world in which I live--
From the face on which I dwell.

These lips shout ruby and
These eyes murmur sex.
This skin says Touch me
So differently from the rest.
These lips that shout ruby
Disguise what's far beneath
As commonly as these eyes
Hide what's disbelief.

There are things as big as giants
Growing under this skin--
Things so outraged and destined,
Full of and ready to sin.
--Things these brown balls and
These red liners disguise;
--Things that echo the term Demise.
Under this skin there are places
Where these things go insane,
Looking for a place to storm and
Then to avoid the rain.
People have met them one by one but
Haven't known them in depth.
Who else would know one's insides
Better than one's self?

While I fight a pointless battle
Against the soldiers of my soul
I glance up at the sky and wonder
What the Lord fortold.
And then I come back down to Earth
To stare at them a while and
While my insides fall to pieces all
They can do is smile.

Adrienne Helms
aehelms@edisto.cofc.edu