Sunburn

Your skin is burnt but never dead

Embedded in its brown melanin
is a slippery bodyscape
of wrinkles and pigments
rubbing against
post-colonial subjugation
and ultra-violent obsessions

The lines and outlines are always alive

You peel it off
callously and painstakingly
like a masochist in disguise
a reptile shedding its exterior
revealing a new smooth layer
as if nestling into pain is necessary
a subliminal ecstasy

Your skin is burnt but never dead
The lines and outlines are always alive