in the cold bathtub in his underwear
looking up at the shower head
that drips down
every sixth or seventh second
a drop smelling of chlorine
rolling down his ribs
the safety bar there above for the old
and the infirm
hopelessly out of reach
and the showerhead so impossibly remote
and so unbearably unrelenting
that a tear, smelling of chlorine,
leaks from his eye and falls
upward
a sight that makes him giggle
and squirm
and imagine himself sliding
down the drain
like someone’s humorously skinny
mother.
looking up at the shower head
that drips down
every sixth or seventh second
a drop smelling of chlorine
rolling down his ribs
the safety bar there above for the old
and the infirm
hopelessly out of reach
and the showerhead so impossibly remote
and so unbearably unrelenting
that a tear, smelling of chlorine,
leaks from his eye and falls
upward
a sight that makes him giggle
and squirm
and imagine himself sliding
down the drain
like someone’s humorously skinny
mother.
(originally appeared on Scars Publications website; will appear in cc&d magazine in April 2012)
