We do not need to strip..

We do not need to strip
the layers of your disguise
to know what lies underneath
oil, metal, a beeswax varnish -
the pine dissolved a path
for you to steam through
and limonened, to read
the grain of porous skin beneath;

it breathes the same breath,
the same story, just one more year
in a ring of time - uninterrupted
growth, in wrinkles and saltlines.

An alkaline truth takes away an acid
tongue, when by love we are undone.

07(ed)