Have you ever thought how it might feel

To cast your skin like a snake or giant spider

Leave behind a perfect shell that looks

Enough like you to fool your closest friend

And yet, precious and fragile as fine gold leaf

Would disintegrate if touched or breathed upon?

One day I hope to do this simple thing

To slough this dowdy, life-worn husk

Escape like the house fly new released

From a matchbox into the empty vastness

Of  a cathedral or like a child’s helium balloon

Into the endless ether from his careless grasp.

Oli 17/08/08