- Vol. 09
- Chapter 03
Image by Dee Mulrooney
Bath Time on New Year’s Eve
I’m ready for it, waiting
for the new day of a new year,
scrubbing myself pristine and sparkling.
I should rise like Venus,
but I lean back in the tepid water,
wallow in the saponaceous
calm and drift
feel my legs meld
watch stars gush on waves
to cover me with scales
listen to the soaring notes of whales,
guttural gulls’ warnings
and my sister’s
songs and sink
below the water line,
dive to where it’s navy,
away from the cerulean drift
to seaweed’s sensuous wavy
caress, a shoal of tiny, silvery fish
fingers on my cockled
skin and swim
Bath Time on New Year’s Eve
with the proprioception
of mermaids and selkies,
a watery conception
of winter’s caesura,
swimming towards
a new morning
and diving for pearls
in the ellipsis before spring…