Onion Skin

by Sam Barbee

Image credit: David Kristofer on Unsplash

I peel a friendship today…

Shuck the crisp skin

Off another’s pride.

Reduce this warrior’s armor

To a soft, discarded rind.

His careless moment

Wounded another we both love.

I debate myself as the words

Spill on the yellow tablecloth.

My pragmatic sense penetrates

Layer after concentric layer,

Revealing this proper boy’s

Clear, defenseless heart.

His transparent slivers curl on his plate.

We chat of the pleasure of honor,

And next Tuesday’s haunted lunch.

***

Sam Barbee

Sam Barbee’s newest collection is titled Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing). He has three previous poetry collections, including That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), which was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. Also, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag), which chronicles family travels throughout England. His poems have appeared recently in Poetry South, Salvation South, and upcoming in Cave Wall, among others; plus online journals Dead Mule School of Literature, American Diversity Report, Grand Little Things, Verse-Virtual, and Medusa’s Kitchen. He is a two-time Pushcart Nominee. He served as President of the Winston-Salem Writers, and also NC Poetry Society, and is one of the originators of the Poetry In Plain Sight — now in its thirteenth year — a poetry initiative to feature NC poets on broadside posters and display them in NC towns statewide.