I used to bathe in PVA
to hold myself together,
falsifying
the striptease of confession,
revelation,
forging a synthetic skin
to let people under, tear
asunder, take
a piece and frame it
like a rubbing of a leaf
or gravestone,
lock it in a locket,
gild your open heart.

One childish summer, I
stood on a street corner
with a friend, de-winged
ants knee deep, picking at her
sunburnt shoulders, peeling
her away, leaves to the wind
like a flowerbud
or christmas present,
trying to find her
angel wings
halfway between shoulder
blades and tissue paper
skin, volant as powder down.

Some precious things
are best left veiled.