Weariness: A Second Skin
David Baird
Weariness: a second skin
less human than reptilian;
perhaps disease acquired when
our race took hissed advice.
It hangs on flesh like weighty mail
thought needed in this teary veil,
but true man’s war is with such scales:
the serpent’s plated lies.
Son’s toil and hot aching thirst,
believed their lot from Eden-cursed,
no longer binds since chains were burst
at new tree sacrifice.
Mere work remains for lifted head,
with strength renewed by daily bread,
fresh life whose only price is death:
Golgotha’s grand surprise.