If your skin is a coat,
   wear it inside out.
    When the snow arrives,
      let the lining twist and shout.

               If your skin is a house,
                 thank the demolition crew
                   for each new day they clear out
                     an old version of you.

                        If your skin is wallpaper,
                             don’t trust the flowers.
                               If your bones are wind chimes,
                                   stay awake after hours.

                 If your skin is a map,
         just for once – fold it wrong.
     Allow your routes and your rivers
 their meandering songs.

If your skin is a palace,
     let us scuff its marble.
        If your scars are starlings,
           let them whistle and warble.

                  If your veins are blue handwriting,
                       let them finish the sentence.
                              If your blood is a fortress,
                                   abandon your defences.

                   If your skin is a garden,
               water the weeds.
           They’ve been there longer
     and know what it needs.

If your skin is a library,
        misfile the pain.
            Put grief under “weather”
                    and joy under “rain.”

                             If your skin is a country,
                                 ignore every border.
                                    Let the freckles establish
                                       their own sort of order.

               If your skin is a lighthouse,
          remove the bulb.
       Let the merciful darkness
   do some of the work.

If your skin’s an aquarium,
          feed the sharks some torn pages.
              These things have survived
                     on reflections for ages.

                  If your skin is a beehive,
           stop keeping count.
     The honey arrives
despite all your doubts.

   Keep knitting your nettles
for each sting and each scrape
    brings the rest of us
          closer to
              our
             own
           human
           shapes.