By Button Poetry
.
.
Porsha Olayiwola, performing at Button Poetry Live in Saint Paul, MN.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:06
Today is a day of tiny massacres.
00:11
For the flight attendant laughs at your last name,
00:15
or you get pulled over on your way home from tour,
00:19
or the European foreigner asks you where to buy drugs at the bar.
00:25
And so, before I leave my home,
00:30
I remove my skin.
00:33
I pull the nude zipper from under my chin
00:38
down to my waist.
00:40
I reach to my shoulder
00:42
and peel back the dark bark brown coating.
00:47
I pull the sheath to my knees and step out of my skin,
00:51
like it is a jumpsuit I spent too much time
00:55
letting the outside get on.
00:57
I hang my skin over arms of a chair,
01:01
like a leather jacket.
01:04
Wrinkles, a rippled heirloom,
01:07
defaced myself in the mirror.
01:10
This flesh, all veins, and blood, and meat.
01:16
Animal. Large eyes spear, stare.
01:22
Back, black, blooming,
01:24
pink, salmon budding bright red lines
01:28
running all over my body
01:31
like soldiers.
01:34
(cheers and applause)
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
***
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want a deeper connection with our community, please join us as a Premium Member today.
Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Screenshot from video