Are we always ready to hug change or growth,
to leave behind our muffled shells for worth?
In life, animals need to allow for regeneration.
Change is not regularly a hassle-free obligation.
Did you know that they eat the skin they shed?
Some lizards, frogs and insects do, or so I heard.
I know that dogs and cats discard fur seasonally,
when they fine-tune it to temperatures, naturally.
I hear too that hermit crabs cast off their skin,
and, nature, that’s when old skin is outgrown.
Shed hair, flush out grey fuzz and a tired horn.
I see surreptitious serpents slip out of old skin.
There’s molting in insects and animals, shedding
in hoppers and frogs. Amphibians. It’s comforting.
Reptiles renew while birds shed and shake off old
fluffs, plus thick-tailed scorpions, as if old isn’t gold!
