15 September 2009

Deep Sea Diving

Shallow water in a round red pool
Splashing face streaked with tart tears,
Bury your hands into the spot where
Foam flecks flicker and the sea
Meets the shore.
Water is adaptable,
Coalescing into any shape,
Space.
What if water could feel?
It stings
Your hands after you’ve been out in the snow.
It whispers
Drip-drops from the faucet
Late at the night
My feet turn sudsy in the rain.
Waves break like hearts at high tide,
It sloshes, steams,
slurps, crashes,
and careens,
It labors
Hail bits and ice chips
Clatter like marbles
In the mouth.
Do you walk barefoot
In torrential rain?
Feel the skin of your toes squeak,
Squeaky clean.
It sounds like absolution.
But water costs money;
Reservoirs clang empty.
I used to take hot baths and pretend
The water was lava.
I used to catch raindrops on my tongue
And worry about the effects of acid rain.
Let’s kiss underwater because
Thermal lakes in Hungary
Leave sulfur stains.
Water is the universal solvent.

1 comment:

Jon said...

nice poem... and great closing line...

also was drawn to this line:

"What if water could feel"

it's interesting because of how seldom we wonder about these kinds of things... for it's not only I who looks at the water, or I who feels the water

for it too looks at me, and feels my skin... just in a way that I can't understand...

know what I mean???