Skin, or: Bones

Posted on by ben Alexander

Poetry Partners #27

‘Skin in the Game’ by Audrey Duff of ‘Stopping Schadenfreude’

It's the horses' sweaty skin
that Derby owners claim.
Warren Buffet’s first deal,
not much skin in that game.
Pigs weren’t so lucky in games,
Their bladders stretched and stuffed,
tossed and bound,
for four quarters and a hundred yards.
That’s what happens if you’re smart.
Skin is just money with nerves.
He says I don’t have any.
I say I know I’ve got skin
Because I’ve got scars.
But he’s right about my nerve.

A poem by ben Alexander of ‘The Skeptic’s Kaddish’

It's the horse's rigid bones
our children use in art projects.
The image sticks
like a bone in my throat.
We get processed at bone factories;
lame stallions meet their ends at the knacker's.
Benjamin the donkey didn't horse around
when his best friend was sold off
for a case of whiskey.
Those drunken hogs deserved to be hanged
on hooks and bled out into troughs.
Skeletons are just uncomfortable truths
with stem cells; spongelike
or solid - it's all a matter
of framing.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

List of Poetry Partners

31 thoughts on “Skin, or: Bones”

  1. Reblogged this on Stopping Schadenfreude and commented:
    What’s the connection between collaborative published poetry and (the purpose of this blog) not stepping in shit??? I believe creative writing makes us pause between lines. Poetry invokes rhythm, haikus consist of 17 syllables. In the “in betweens” of what “NOT” to do, I won’t be mapping out next steps for anyone. Particularly since I can’t dance. I will, however, play a little, and poetry is how I play. Check out “The Skeptic’s Kaddish” if this way of creating and connecting means something to you.

  2. David’s ability surpasses collaboration. He is right there with me on this one, speaking the same written language when I am most raw, most honest, when I am at my bravest. Thank you, David

  6. Both of these are brilliant, witty and deep, and anything that includes an Orwell reference gets an automatic two-thumbs up from me! 🙂 Very well done, both of you.

  9. What was Warren Buffets first deal, that never amounted for much. That is interesting.
    I have no idea what the poem is about. I guess one needs to clued up on the history detailed there and some form of economics. It feels grotesque.
    Heartbreaking reading about these meat factories.
    Gruesome, still this is poetry.

          1. Very, one need to read and know people’s stories. How they began. The capitalist world can be cold and marginalizing this why most philanthropist who are investors and industrialist are painted with the same brush, but you really got to understand the soul behind the money.

      1. I love anatomy, and well, I’ve written stuff about the brain and the heart, but never about the body as a whole…that’s something I feel I can try out, which’ll yield interesting results! 🙂

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