The Poetry of Transparency: On Visible Veins, Thin Skin, and What We Cannot Hide

Our visible veins represent a kind of involuntary honesty. The body refusing to conceal its inner workings. As Adrienne Rich wrote of "the thing itself and not the myth," our veins are precisely this: evidence that the body, unlike the mind, cannot lie indefinitely. It tells the truth about time, about fragility, about the liquid machinery that keeps us alive.

Consider what else the body reveals without our permission: the flush of emotion rising in our cheeks, tears that spring to our eyes before we can stop them, the way our voice breaks when we speak of something that matters. We are, whether we like it or not, transparent creatures. Our biology insists on honesty even when our psychology does not.