Touch Assignment - Part Two

- Skin -

"Our skin is what stands between us and the world. If you think about it, no other part makes contact with something not us but the skin. It imprisons us, but it also gives us individual shape, protects us from invaders, cools us down or heats us up as need be, produces vitamin D, holds in our body fluids. Most amazing, perhaps, is that it can mend itself when necessary, and it is constantly renewing itself." - Diane Ackerman

Skin

There is no escape from you

I am trapped within you

I cut, scrape, and poke you with needles

still, you renew yourself

I cannot exist apart from you

you are forever a piece of me

a barrier from the outside

you protect what is inside

I’ll try to climb out

but I can’t

climb out

from myself

there is no escape from you

          We are forever trapped within our skin, yet we are also protected by it. I question the dichotomy; does the skin protect or hold us captive?