“After the Pond”

“After the Pond” by Emily Banks begins:

Stripping off the tight false skin
of a one-piece bathing suit
I’d kneel in the bathtub, repentant saint
spraying off soft particles of decomposing logs,

grass blades that lashed my legs
with sticky rough tongues that clung
by tiny perforations to my pores.
[continue reading]

Also by Emily Banks at Heron Tree: “Queen Anne’s Lace.”