The Shower Floor (11.20.17)

I open the plastic door and reach in to turn the knob to three o’clock

I stand in my robe as my toes start to curl

I avoid my own glance in the mirror.

I step into the warmth, I’m in the womb again

I stand under the stream

To absorb as much as possible.

I cover my head in conditioner

Then the shampoo

Because everything is backwards

In the midnight hours.

I’ve washed what needed washing

My time in the shower should be done

But I don’t feel clean.

Instead I sit on the shower floor and close my eyes.

I put my head under the water

Letting it drip down strands of hair.

Eyes shut, I’m in a rainforest.

The warm rain trickles down my back

Washing away the dirt

The pressures of the world outside of the emerald green rainforest.

The shampoo’s coconut

And body wash mango

They hang from the trees

So here I can sit

And here can I stay

To let it all fall

Feel it sink

Down the drain.