Toilet-Water Blue Poem by Kathy Lippard Cobb

flailing in this rancid pit
drowning in the excrement
your shit
my shit
the world's in the toilet bowl
both of us are getting old
but you still look 16
—and I look like your mom

now our boat's capsized
in the toilet-water blue
the sloshing stench doesn't bother you
you have hopes
you have plans
you don't pray that your death's at hand

speaking of hand
on the other
I've become my mother
soaked to the bone
this wild-eyed soul
fishing for dreams in a porcelain bowl

drowning in blue
I wait to die
my dreams float in the crappy mush
yet I'm still here to wonder why
God won't give this world the cosmic flush

Kathy Lippard Cobb