Shedding

The course ridges of dead skin,
gray, pale, flaying and singed with
regret,
just out of reach, grasping
for relief - cool water in the cruel desert,
searching for that feeling remembered,
long ago when time seemed sweet,
like honey, but now crystallized,
a sensation of desire,
to shed your skin,
at the tip of the skull it begins,
flashing fire in every vein,
stripping away past the nose,
and your shoulders, worn with burdens
down past your soft belly, longing for touch,
sliding and squirming out, like a snake
inching past the knees and finally the toes,
as the sun rose, a new soul gleaming in the dawn
new life, at the cost of old demons,
who once ruled the night -
while you now rule the day.