The Bath Poem by Eloisa Gearhart

Unworthy of my time or my glance
My hands plunged beneath the water
felt the coolness turn to ice and my skin began to sting
Washed myself of you and your foolish games
Your taunts, your perceptions and your names
Your breath hung over me like a cloud and my vision was blurred
until I was only an amorphous silhouette shifting in the fog
unable to discern my own self from this thickness

The searing, the severed nerves burning inside
my legs enter the deep
Needles, stabbings
spreading until it covers my chest
freezing me, halting my breath
I'm alive but it hurts to feel this much
I'm washing myself of you

Swaying shapes in this chill as the water covers my mouth
I think I'll breathe no more
flaring nostrils inhale this liquid, ice scraping against my cheek
The mark it leaves
red and bruised
I'm freezing
White of my eyes now sanguine
the line of water and air slashing my pupils so I can see clearly
Cleansing myself from the memory you memorized of me

I'm washing myself of you