ahogúese

ahogúese
I. Bath
My skin is pruney, wrinkley fingers
I can see flakes of my skin
floating on the top of the water
my hair bouyant, streaks of red and gold,
pale skin under the water
nothing hidden, my fears open.
I sink my body into the bath
only my mouth and nose above the water
it would be so easy
to slip completely beneath the ripples
fill my lungs with the aqueous
peripheral vasoconstriction
slowing heart rate
mucus forming in mass
air bubbles escaping
my breath and oxygen stopping
my heart slows down
it's called bradycardia,
I'll be dead soon.
II. Net
The sea came for la llorona's children
she turned them into fish
opened her big black veil to let them go,
she wails, leaving a path of destruction
and now she will take me with her
into the shadow of the valley of death--
I cannot turn into a fish,
here, I meet death, driven mad by regret.
III. Alas, then, she drown'd
I fall from the willow
crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
nestled in my hair,
merrily Ophelia and I sing,
no sense to swim, no sense to struggle
till the garments, heavy with their drink,
pull she and me to muddy death.
Poor wretch.
IV. Song
La llorona wept as her fish-daughters
were carried merrily away by the
naiads, the nereids and hydriads,
out into the stream, the river, the ocean
swallowing them up.
Ophelia did sing
as she drowned--
ella se ahogó...
Me ahogué.
Finally happy.