Snakeskin

Snakes shed skin
I learnt it in 2nd grade.
I learnt, remembered & forgot in parts
But most of it has stayed in my heart.

Skin. Boundary to the soul,
Envelop of the flesh
Part of its hearbeat, part of its breath
But a snake has to see its skin’s death.

Look how it slithers away leaving it behind
Ahead it moves without a thought to rewind
The pain of separation or the aches of letting it go,
How craftily it makes it to be a dispensable show.
In its spanking new skin it slithers on
Its more mortal skin forever gone.

But with a heart of a human
And circumstance of a snake,
Shedding the skin becomes hard
But there always remains a part we need to discard.

Nature doesn’t aid us like a snake
And never did it aid us like a bird
But we flew
So someday we will know how to shed the skin too
And restart recharged, fresh and new.