Leather Soul Poem by Simon Lawson

I have had to grow a leather soul
thick enough
to stifle cold
tough enough
to take a blow
malleable enough
for growth

Sensitivity was a burden I wore across my shoulders
a target slung across my jugular

but I fell so many times
that a cut formed where I fell
and that cut grew into a sore
and that sore into a callous
and the callous into leather

Feeling all is not a virtue of existence
not the delight of being and sensation

but an overwhelming, enveloping weakness to all and sundry

I want to love the world
but I need it in doses
there is so much in this world
that one soul cannot carry it all at once

and so I grew a leather soul
and now I am free to feel