Is my value as a human merely based
on the colour of my carcass?
Is there no intrinsic value
in what lies beneath my pelt?
Is my hide all that matters?
Will you say that a coat of black
is worse or better than a coat
of white or brown or red?
Peak beneath my skin
and see who I really am
Let me see you for more
than your colour
or let me be flayed
and tanned
for if I am no more than the
tone of my flesh,
I am merely an animal
to be hunted and
turned into leather.
~~
Recent violence that appears to be racially motivated, and a history of marking people as “good” or “bad” based on nothing more than their exterior are the motives behind writing this piece. Usages of terms for animal skins is very deliberate, for that is what we are – animals – unless we can see each other for who we really are, and not just what we look like.
I’ve also decided to share this with Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, as it seems to fit the Sunday mini-challenge of something deep within a shallow world.
Quest for Whirled Peas 
And this morning, we learned of the deliberate massacre of people with blue covers on their skin. Has the world gone crazy?
that massacre was a part of the “inspiration” – it really doesn’t matter what colour of skin is at each end of the gun…racial hatred is racial hatred, and it certainly goes both ways. In response to your question, “Has the world gone crazy?” Sadly, I think that the answer is yes.
Down here in the US, unfortunately, we seem to enjoy singling out groups and killing them.
Good write, Brian — skin is the shallowest of metaphors, and reading the world that way produces astounding indifference and wrong. There is a nudge here about human judgment of the much smaller worth of animal skins (compared to our own).
Certainly we look at the outside and judge so easily – and wrongly! When will we ever learn? Powerful metaphor
That skin or color of hair or whatever we decide really becomes a shallow way of classification – the flesh is still the same, as much as brain cells and whay our blood is always red. Love your poem,
The animal metaphor really brings it home – particularly that word, ‘leather’ at the end, removing all of the personal.
Wow! That final analogy is very striking.
The elemental quality and simplicity in this makes even more apparent the crazy ways of this color calling world. Perfect write.
Wow, this really packs a punch! Well done.