Article    Table of Contents                  Services    Send comment/rapid response letter    Notify a friend about this article    Alert me when this article is cited    Add to Personal Archive    Download to Citation Manager    ACP Search                            Get Permissions  Google Scholar    Search for Related Content  PubMed Articles in PubMed by Author:    Jones, A.    PubMed

AD LIBITUM

The Skin

Alice Jones, MD

15 June 1997 | Volume 126 Issue 12 | Page 982

---

Our tent-like integument
begins with childhood's
vellum. Then

fresh-faced, resilient fruit
rind becomes the slowly
sagging flesh, pore-pocked

opaque and spotted, reflecting
history in expressive creases
of our common usage.

The soft cloth sack, a flanneled
sheath with russet pockets,
tucks in, hem-like

at the edges, to demark our wet-
textured, mucosa-lined
cavities, our hidden

kid-soft selves. Unskinned, we're open
to invasion, as if we slide off
an old leather coat,

fold the doughy, slack garment
across one arm, and step out-
a crate of beef-red muscle

weeping serum, raw and uncontained.
The pellicle becomes the line,
me on my side,

you on yours, safe inside
our separate hides, the part
we call ourselves.

Author and Article Information

Top Author & Article Info

Oakland, CA 94618
Requests for Reprints: Alice Jones, MD, 6239 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618.

Article    Table of Contents                  Services    Send comment/rapid response letter    Notify a friend about this article    Alert me when this article is cited    Add to Personal Archive    Download to Citation Manager    ACP Search                            Get Permissions  Google Scholar    Search for Related Content  PubMed Articles in PubMed by Author:    Jones, A.    PubMed