(after the) scrape

fucked up skinhead

after the beat down
spitting up blood and teeth
ask yourself:
is the anger the fuel
or does it feed more steel
to the anchor that weighs down
the blocks in your mind?

after scraping out
the skin between your fingernails
ask yourself:
does believing what you believe
save you from (love)?

if we can unlearn what we learn
from years of hate and fear
lack of trust and exposure

if you can start seeing color
after years of grayscale limitations
would you?

Reviews

[(no es) maria]

Thanks for the feedback, Tiger! Yes, I definitely need to be more considerate to the titles; sometimes they just pop out.

Here's something crazy: I wrote this poem yesterday. Today there was a story about a reformed skinhead in one of my local papers .

You can read the story here:
http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-9811-arno-ftw.html#sCommentN6827

Marvelous. :-)

[kewlbluetiger]

Interesting. Powerful. I didn't notice your note about what this poem was about (skin heads) until I reread it. So at first I thought it was a poem about domestic abuse. BUT then I read your caption and reread the poem and it took on new meaning of implied racially motivated violence. Keep that in mind, because you have to incorporate some identifying mark that this is aimed at "skin heads" if that's what you're driving towards: ie (shaved head, whatever).

Regardless, this is a really powerful write. Quite a departure for you who tends to write about pretty stuff! Shows off your talent!

KewlBlueTiger