Bath view

Mirror submarine legs in foreshortened view,

hairiest in the middle, tapering and

plumping; two knees like balding pates—I see you—

swelling junctions of ankle; ten stubs reddened

by heat. This body bears this body I use.

This body chooses to treat this body kind,

to soak its aging paleness without staring,

to coax my collected coils toward unwinding.

Look at this furred belly skin, orangutan

contours and twin volunteering nipples, too…

When you fall into the sound of words, meanings

go blurred; as now in this undersea body

i’m getting unthought and undiscovering

what all this flesh and hair and structure could mean.

Through the surface emerges a dripping hand.

I feel its weight from inside. Two eyeballs see

this gesture of matter I think of as me.