Blood Feathers

Nails and hair are strange things

They’re not alive, but they grow

Even after we’re gone

But that’s how protection works

It’s all about expansion

One might think we only have shells for our fingertips

And not the shells of guns

Here’s something a little different:

They wrinkle in the water.

And here we always thought it was a side effect

But it’s another protection

It gives us better grip

There are those who say that we have

Unnecessary things, fingers and toes

So why not just lop them off?

Or better yet: give them for a cause.

Maybe scars don’t stand out as much as we think they do

Maybe they’re camouflage

Some things age without the help of time

A week underground is like ten years under sky

So many people are terrified of wrinkles

We hold fast to the tightness of things,

Smooth skins and schedules

The first thing we added to our bodies were skins

What strange things are nails and hair