from 100 Titles from Tom Beckett:

#84: Whose Skin Might This Be?

To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength.

Charles Handy

Alcohol acts as a sedative. Hormones

die down, dopamine starts to fire. I am

more relaxed, sorting out in my mind

the more meaningful aspects of my life

by writing down notes about them even

though I do not process language by an

analysis of its grammatical categories.

Our personalities, the environments

that nurture us, make us who we are.

Character has an inherently moral cast.

That an assassin has their own moral

code is something few people talk about.

To be comfortable in someone else’s

skin is the beginning of compassion.

#85: Scanning Barcodes

starts a new life of piety & righteousness

can put a child in serious danger of injury or unnecessary medical care

sometimes makes an individual decide to perpetrate a sexual crime on another person

makes some people say they feel exhausted & sad after doing it

makes other people turn to pornography to self soothe their anxiety or depression

is generally associated in the Western world with Right-wing populism

can cause your body to release a number of hormones

may cause inflammation of the pancreas

is a pejorative label used to discriminate against “new religious movements”

helps dogs to develop patience

causes your tyres to wear down more quickly

kills more than 480,000 people in the U.S. each year

will not lead to blindness

Note: The poem ‘Scanning Barcodes’ has appeared previously in Scud. Our thanks for permission to include it here.