Hotel Pool, 2PM
Foreword
I'm eight, and I'm swimming in a pool. I'm in Georgia. I'm alone. My dad is somewhere doing work, and my brother is at the other end of the abyss. I'm kicking my legs. The other eight-year old girls are kicking their legs. I can kick like them, but something is always off. I try to kick my left leg. Nope- I kick my right. No- it's not the same. It's not working. Their kicks are different. I look down, and my legs are a cloudy outline of BROWN through the water. The suntan lotion is falling off of me as I shake my limbs, but not the BROWN. I kick, I kick, I kick. Flecks of white, falling right off of me, drifting away from the BROWN. It's 2 PM. I'm kicking.
you’ll find me poking crescents in the
FLAILING | CALVES | WHITE
these really pretty girls swimming around me
can’t you just cut your damned nails!
CHLORINE | WASH (RUB)
your marks will go away.
they’re just waning moons yet mine is all over &
SLAP | ITCH | SOB
as a human I leak, it’s no big deal- it’s
not working, it should be washing away
TOWEL | SUN | TAN
it’s reverse suntan lotion it’s called self-hate
it’s called
WASH IT ALL AWAY.